LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

■niiaii 

oooioEoosta 




flass TD G & 
Rnnk . 53 Ms 



SCARABS 



SCARABS. 



History, Manufacture and Religious 
Symbolism 

OF THE 

SCARAB^US, 

IN 

Ancient Egypt, Phcenicia, Sardinia, 
Etruria, etc. 

ALSO 

Remarks on the Learning, Philosophy, Arts, Ethics, 
Psychology, Ideas as to the Immortality of 
THE Soul, etc., of the Ancient Egyp- 
tians, Phcenicians, etc. 

/' BY 

ISAAC MYER, LL.B. 

Member of the American Oriental Society. The American Numismatic 

and Archaeological Society. The Numismatic and Antiquarian 

Society of Philadelphia. La Societe Royale de Numis- 

matique de Belgique. The Oriental Club of 

Philadelphia. The New York Historical 

Society Historical Society of 

the State of Pennsylvania, 

etc. 

Author of The Qabbalah. The Philosophical Writings of 

Solomon b. Yehudah Ibn. Gebirol, or Avicebron ; 

The Waterloo Medal, etc. ____ 



for sale by / ,V 

EDWIN W. DAYTON, 

No. 641 Madison Avenue, 
New York. 






OTTO HARRASSOWITZ, EMILE BOUILLON, > 

Querstrasse No. 14, No. 67, Rue de Richelieu, 

Leipzig. 1894. Paris. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, by 

ISAAC MYER, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



All Rights of Translation Reserved. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE following work is taken in part, 
from an address delivered by me 
before, The American Numismatic and 
Archaeological Society, at its Hall in the 
City of New York, on March 30th, 1893. 
Since that time I have been led into a 
train of thought, having as its basis a 
more philosophical treatment of the 
meaning of the scarabseus as a symbol, 
in the religious metaphysic conception of 
it by the Ancient Egyptians, and have 
added much new matter. I am convinced 
that at the period when we first meet with 
the symbol of the scarabaeus in Egypt, it 
was already the symbol and tangible 



INTRODUCTION. 



expression of an elevated religious idea, 
embracing that of a future life of the 
human soul, a resurrection of it from the 
dead, and most likely, of a reward or 
punishment to it in the future life, based 
on its conduct when in the terrestrial life. 
We know from the inscription on the 
lid of the coffin of Men-kau-Ra, king of 
the IVth, the Memphite Dynasty, {circa 
3633-3600 B.C.,) and builder of the Third 
Pyramid at Gizeh ; that some of the most 
elevated conceptions of the Per-em-hru, 
i.e., the so-called. Book of the Dead, were 
at that time in existence as accepted facts. 
The dead one at this early period became 
an Osiris, living eternally. We have 
every reason to think, that the use of the 
models of the scarabaeus as the symbol of 
the resurrection or new-birth, and the 
future eternal life of the triumphant or 
justified dead, existed as an accepted 
dogma, before the earliest historical 



INTRODUCTION. 



knowledge we have thus far been able to 
acquire of the Ancient Egyptians. 

It most probably ante-dated the epoch 
of Mena, the first historical Egyptian 
king. How long before his period it 
existed, in the present condition of our 
knowledge of the ancient history and 
thought of Egypt, it is impossible to sur- 
mise. Of the aborigines of the land of 
Egypt we do not know nor are we very 
likely to know, anything. Of the race 
known to us as the Egyptian we can now 
assert with much certainty, that it was a 
Caucasian people, and likely came from 
an original home in Asia. When the 
invader arrived in the valley of the Nile, 
he appears to have been highly civilized 
and to have had an elevated form of 
religious belief. 

The oldest stelae known, one of which 
is now in the Ashmolean Museum at 
Oxford, England, and the other in the 



INTRODUCTION. 



Museum at Gizeh, Egypt ; were made for 
the tomb of Shera, who is called on them, 
"a prophet" and "a royal relative." He 
was a priest of the period of Sent, the 
fifth king of the Ilnd Dynasty, who was 
living about 4000 B.C. The stele is shown 
by Lepsius in his Auswahl, Plate 9, and 
is the earliest example of a hieroglyphic 
inscription known. These stelse are in 
the form of a false door. 

Upon these stelse of Shera, is inscribed 
the Egyptian prayer for the soul of the 
dead called, the Suten-hotep-ta, from its 
first words. The Suten-hotep-ta was sup- 
posed to have been delivered by divine 
revelation. An old text speaks of, a 
" Suten-hotep-ta exactly corresponding to 
the texts of sacrificial offerings, handed 
down by the ancients as proceeding from 
the mouth of God."* This prayer in- 
scribed on the steles mentioned, asks that 



Lepsius, Denkmal III., pi. 13. 



INTRODUCTION. 



there may be granted the deceased in the 
other world, funeral oblations, "thousands 
of oxen, linen bandages, cakes, vessels of 
wine, incense, etc." This shows that at 
this very early period there was a belief 
in Egypt of the future life of the Ba, the 
responsible soul, and of the Ka, the vital 
soul, of the deceased. The word Ka 
enters into the names of kings Ka-kau, 
Nefer-ka-Ra, and Nefer-ka-seker of the 
Ilnd Dynasty (4133-3966 B.C.) In the 
same Dynasty the word Ba, the name of 
the responsible soul, and Baiu its plural, 
enter into the names Neter-Baiu and Ba- 
en-neter. Ab, i.e., the heart, also enters 
into the name of Per-ab-sen of this Dy- 
nasty. We also have Ba in the name of 
Mer-ba-pen, sixth king of the 1st Dy- 
nasty. 

It was during the reign of king Sent, 
that a medical papyrus was edited which 
shows it was the result of years of experi- 



INTRODUCTION, 



ence. From what we have just said it is 
extremely likely, that the body was mum- 
mified in Egypt from the earliest period 
of which we have knowledge. 

Manetho says that Teta, the second 
king of the 1st Dynasty, circa 4366 B.C., 
wrote a book on anatomy, and experi- 
mented with drugs or chemicals. Shesh, 
the mother of this king, invented a hair 
wash.* 

We can from the foregoing assume 
with some certainty, that before the 
historical period in Ancient Egypt, a 
religious belief existed, funeral ceremo- 
nies, and an expectation of an eternal life 
of the soul after the death of the body of 

* Papyrus Ebers, Bd. II., Glossarium Hieroglyphicum, by 
Stern, p. 47. The Mummy, etc., by E. A. Wallis Budge, 
Litt. D., F.S.A,, etc. Cambridge, 1893, pp. 176, 219, 353, 
Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 1891, pp. 27, 28. An 
interesting but condensed account of Ancient Egyptian 
medical knowledge, with references to the papyri, is given by 
M. Maspero in his, Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de I'OrienL 
Paris, 1886, pp. 73-77. 



INTRODUCTION. 



man on this earth ; whether a beUef in 
rewards or punishments to be suffered or 
enjoyed by the soul after such death, for 
actions done by man in this earthly life, 
existed at that time, we cannot as yet, 
with certainty, affirm ; but it is quite likely 
it did. In this connection a study of the 
"Pyramid Texts" published by Maspero 
in his Recueil de TravauXy is of great 
value to the student. 

An element of great value to the 
student of religions is, that the scarabseus 
symbol, is the earliest expression of the 
most ancient idea of the immortality of 
the soul after death that has reached our 
day, taking us back however to a period 
which may be considered as civilized and 
enlightened and yet, so encompassed with 
the mists of the past, that the mental eye 
of to-day cannot grasp that past with 
much tangibility, and giving us almost 
cause to think, that the doctrine of the 



INTRODUCTION. 



immortality of the human soul was a 
remnant of an early divine revelation, or 
at least, an advanced instinct of early 
humanity; for it is a curious phase of 
archaic Egyptian thought, that the further 
we go back in our investigations of the 
origins of its religious ideas, the more 
ideal and elevated they appear as to the 
spiritual powers and the unseen world. 
Idolatry made its greatest advance sub- 
sequent to the epoch of the Ancient 
Empire, and progressed until it finally 
merged itself into the animalism of the 
New Empire and the gross paganism of 
the Greeks and Romans. 

We have not yet many religious texts 
of the Ancient Empire that have been 
fully studied and made known, but those 
that have been, exhibit an idealism as to 
the Supreme Deity and a belief in the 
immortality of the soul, based on the 
pious, ethical and charitable conduct of 



INTRODUCTION. 



man, which speak highly for an early very 
elevated thought in religious ideas. 

There is however one thought which 
must strike the student of religions forci- 
bly, that is the fact, that the idea of the 
re-birth and future eternal life of the pious 
and moral dead, existed among the An- 
cient Egyptians as an accepted dogma, 
long before the period in which Moses 
is said to have lived. Moses has been 
asserted both in the New Testament 
(Acts VII., 22), and by the so-called 
profane writers Philo and Josephus, to 
have been learned in all the wisdom and 
knowledge of the Egyptians of his time, 
yet we have not in the pages of the 
Pentateuch, which is usually by the theo- 
logians ascribed to him, any direct asser- 
tion of the doctrine of a future life or of 
an immortality of the human soul, or of a 
future reward or punishment in a future 
state of the soul. Ideas are therein set 



INTRODUCTION. 



forth however, of a separation of the 
spiritual part of man into different divis- 
ions. 

It may be, that the doctrine of the 
immortaHty of the soul was not accepted 
as a religious dogma, by the Hyksos or 
Shepherd Kings, an apparently Asiatic 
race, probably Semitic, of which we have 
not as yet very much knowledge. It is 
likely that it was under the Hyksos that 
the Hebrew, Joseph, was advanced to 
high honors in Egypt, and under their 
kings, that the influx and increase of the 
Hebrew population in Egypt began and 
prospered. 

It may be advanced with much cer- 
tainty, that the Hebrew people residing 
in Ancient Egypt, must have been ac- 
quainted with many of the Egyptian ideas 
on the subject of the eternal future life of 
the soul of the dead, and the reward or 
punishment of it in that future life, for 



INTRODUCTION. 



these ideas were undoubtedly widely and 
generally known by the Egyptian people, 
and were too thoroughly formulated in 
the active and daily life of the Ancient 
Egyptian population, not to have been 
known by the Hebrews living in daily 
contact with them, but the Hebrews may 
not have accepted them as a verity. 

, It may have been, that as the idea of 
the future existence of the soul in its per- 
fection, was based upon the mummification 
and preservation of the body of the dead, 
so that the Ka might remain with it, and 
go out and revisit it in the tomb; and 
also, on inscriptions either on the walls of 
the tomb or the papyri deposited with the 
body; that Moses, knowing that in his 
wanderings and journeyings, it would be 
impossible to have performed those cere- 
monies and preliminaries necessary under 
the Egyptian system, for the proper bu- 
rial of the corpse ; its mummification and 



INTRODUCTION. 



the preparation of the funeral inscriptions 
or papyri, considered as necessary to be 
inscribed on the walls of the tomb, or on 
the papyri, to be burled with the corpse, 
so as to assist the soul against the perils 
it was supposed it would encounter in its 
journey through the Underworld;* was 
therefore compelled to abandon a dogma 
based on preliminaries and preparations 
he could not, during such wanderings, 
have performed. This would be partly 
an explanation of a subject which has 
for many years caused much dispute 
among very erudite theologians. 

In order to get some knowledge of 
the religious philosophical ideas of the 
Ancient Egyptians, a thorough study of 
the collection of papyri called, the Per-em- 
hru or Book of the Dead, is absolutely 
necessary, also the texts on the walls of 

* We use the word Underworld advisedly, it may be that 
the meaning of the word so translated, is that of a higher or 
opposite world to our terrestrial world. 



INTRODUCTION. 



the tombs of the Ancient Empire es- 
pecially those found at Saqqarah. The 
work of M. Edouard Naville on the Per- 
em-hru lately published, although it refers 
more especially to the Theban period, is 
of great value in this investigation, and 
when it has been translated into a mod- 
ern language by a thoroughly competent 
scholar, will be a key to open many of the 
now hidden but elevated ideas in the 
religious philosophy of the Ancient Egyp- 
tians. 

The edition of the Book of the Dead 
which I have quoted from is that of 
M. Paul Pierret, conservatetcr of the 
Egyptian Museum of the Louvre, Paris, 
France.* This is founded on the Papy- 
rus of Turin, which is of about the 
XXV Ith Dynasty, the Saitic period ; the 

*Z^ Livre des Marts, des Anciens ^gyptiens, traduction 
complhe d'apres le Papyrus de Turin et les manuscrits du 
Louvre, accompagnie de Notes et suivie d'un Index analytique. 
Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1882. 



INTRODUCTION. 



translator has also used in his work, the 
Egyptian manuscripts of the Louvre to 
assist in the elucidation of his readings 
of the Papyrus of Turin. His work is an 
advance on that of Dr. Samuel Birch, 
given in 1867, in the Vth volume of 
Baron von Bunsen's work on, Egypt's 
Place in Universal History. A new 
translation of the Book of the Dead is 
now passing through the English press, 
by P. Le Page Renouf, Esq., but only a 
few chapters thus far have been printed. 
Mr. Renouf's work as an Egyptologist, 
deserves much more attention and credit 
from the learned of both his own and 
other countries, than it has so far re- 
ceived. 

The following among Greek and 
other ancient writers have mentioned 
the scarabaeus, mostly in connection with 
Egypt. Orpheus, Theophrastus, Aristo- 
phanes, Pliny, Plutarch, ^lian, Clement 



INTRODUCTION. 



of Alexandria, Porphyry, HorapoUon, 
Diogenes Laertius, who cites as works 
in which it was mentioned, the Natural 
Philosophy by Manetho {^circa 286-247 
B.C.,) the History of the Philosophy of 
the Egyptians, by Hecatseus (of Abdera? 
circa, 331 B.C.,) and the writings of Aris- 
tagoras {circa 325-300 b.c.,) Eusebius, 
Arnobius, Epiphanius and Ausonius. 

The subject has been somewhat neg- 
lected in modern times. Two small 
brochures on the subject were published 
by Johann Joachim Bellermann, under 
the title of ; Ueber die Scarabden-Genimen^ 
nebst Verstcchen die darauf befindlichen 
Hieroglyphen zu erkldren, one in 1820, 
the other 1821. Another very small cat- 
alogue entitled ; Scarabdes Egyptiens, 
figures du Musde des Antiquea de sa ma- 
jestd VEmpereur, Vienne, de V Imprinter ie 
d''Antoine Strauss, 1824, was published in 
that year in Vienna. None of the above 



INTRODUCTION. 



contain information of importance on the 
subject. 

Dr. Samuel Birch published the first 
classified collection in his ; Catalogue of 
the collection of Egyptian Antiquities at 
Alnwick Castle,* in which he describes 
565 scarabs, signets, etc. In 1884 the 
Rev. W. J. Loftie published his; An 
Essay of Scarabs, London, small 4to, no 
date, 125 numbered copies printed. It 
contained a brief essay, pp. V-XXXII., 
on scarabs, and a short description of 192. 
His collection was purchased in 1890 by 
the Trustees of the British Museum. In 
the summer of 1876, I published in, 
The Evening Telegraph, of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, during the Centennial Ex- 
hibition ; two Essays on Scarabaei and 
Cicadae, and on those exhibited, especially 
those in the Egyptian Section and those 

* Privately printed by the Duke of Northumberland. 
London, 1880. 



INTRODUCTION. 



in the Castellani Collection. In 1887, 
Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, F.S.A., gave a 
description of 150 scarabs in his, Cata- 
logue of the Egyptian Collection of the 
Harrow School Museum, with trans- 
lations of most of the inscriptions upon 
them. In 1888, Dr. A. S. Murray and 
Mr. Hamilton Smith in their, Catalogue 
of Gems, gave a list of scarabs and scar- 
aboids. In 1889 Mr. Flinders Petrie 
published. Historical Scarabs: A series 
of Drawings from the Principal Collec- 
tions, Arranged Chronologically. This 
book has only nine small pages of de- 
scription but they are valuable. In his, 
History of Egypt, Prof. Wiedemann has 
catalogued a great many scarabs. I 
have not seen any of the above works 
except that by Bellermann, that published 
in Vienna, and those by Loftie and 
Petrie, all of which I have in my Library. 
Since my book was printed, I have had 



INTRODUCTION. 



my attention called to, The Mummy, 
Chapters on Egyptian Funeral Archaeol- 
ogy, by E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt. D., 
F.S.A., Cambridge. At the University 
Press, 1893. In this p. 231 et seq., the 
learned author has a very interesting 
chapter on Scarabs. 



Table of Contents. 

Introduction v-xxii 

Table of Contents xxiii-xxvii 

I. 
Forms of the word scarab^eus. Ven- 
eration of the Ancient Egyptians for 
the scarabaeus. Entomology of the 
insect. Symbolism of according to 
Plutarch, Pliny and HorapoUo. Its 
astronomical value. Worship of in- 
sects by other peoples. Symbolism, 
with the Egyptians, of the scarabaeus. 
Uses of it with them i-i 7 

II. 

Manufacture of the scARAByEi. Mate- 
rials. Inscriptions on. Different peri- 
ods of manufacture and the peculiar- 
ities of. How to judge of the epoch. 18-29 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



III. 

Method, period and antiquity, of en- 
graving the scarab and other forms. 
Use of rings. Mention of, and of 
engraving and sealing, in the Old 
Testament. Use of cylinder signets 
by the Egyptians. Relations with 
Mesopotamia. Carving of diorite and 
other hard stone. The Egyptians did 
not borrow their engraving and the 
scarab, from Mesopotamia. Disuse 
of scarabs 30-45 

IV. 
The oldest scarabs. Classification 
and value of the scarab to the scholar 
of to-day. Large inscribed historical 
scarabs 46-56 

V. 

Where usually found and the mode of 
wearing scarabs by the Egyptians. 
Book of the Dead. Egyptian scarabs 
found in Mesopotamia. The scarab 
in Christianity 57-64 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



VI. 

The position of the scarab in Ancient 
Egyptian religion and the Book of the 
Dead. Egyptian philosophy. Ad- 
vanced intellectuality of Egypt six 
thousand years ago. Deities of libra- 
ries and learning. Ancient librarians 
and books. The division of learned 
men into different branches of study. 
The statements of Greek writers on 
Egyptian thought not to be depended 
upon. Quotations from the Book of 
the Dead on the symbolism of the 
scarabaeus deity. The symbolism of 
the Great Sphinx. Further quotations 
from the Book of the Dead, on the 
symbolism of the scarab deity 65-90 



VII. 

Importance of the heart in the An- 
cient Egyptian religion. Immortality 
of the soul according to that religion. 
Symbolism of the scarab in their doc- 
trine of such immortality. No thing 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



in this universe absolutely destroyed, 
only changed. The idea of metempsy- 
chosis in Ancient Egypt. Elevated 
ideas as to the deity. Hymn to Am- 
mon-Ra cited. Quotations as to 
Egyptian philosophy, evolution of the 
universe and kosmogony. Of Khepra 
and of Turn or Atmu. Egyptian 
psychology and its divisions 91 



VIII. 

Forgery of scarabs in modern times. 
Difficulty of detecting such. Other 
Egyptian antiquities also counter- 
feited by the present inhabitants of 
Egypt 123-127 



IX. 

Phcenician scarabs. Manufactured 
mostly as article of trade. Used in- 
scribed scarabs as seals in commercial 
and other transactions. Many scarabs 
found in Sardinia 128-133 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



X. 

Etruscan scarabs. Origin of and 
where found. Copied from Egyptian 
but with changes in subjects, size and 
ornamentation. The engraving of. 
Where usually found. Uses by the 
Etruscans. Greek and Roman scar- 
abs. Gnostic, of the Basilidians. . . .134-143 

Appendix A 145-154 

Index i55-i77 



On Scarabs. 



FORMS OF THE WORD SCARAB^US. VENERA- 
TION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS FOR 
THE SCARAB^US. ENTOMOLOGY OF THE 
INSECT. SYMBOLISM OF ACCORDING TO 
PLUTARCH, PLINY AND HORAPOLLO. ITS 
ASTRONOMICAL VALUE. WORSHIP OF 
INSECTS BY OTHER PEOPLES. SYMBOL- 
ISM, WITH THE EGYPTIANS, OF THE 
SCARAB^US. USES OF IT WITH THEM. 

AMONG the many animals, insects and 
L creatures, held in veneration as sym- 
bols by the Ancient Egyptians ; the one 



2 FORMS OF THE WORD SCARABiEUS. 

universally in use as a symbol from a most 
remote period, were insects of the family 
of the scarabseidse. 

The Greek name of the models of 
these was Skarabaios, Skarabos, Karabos, 
Karabis ; the Sanskrit, Carabka, which 
like the Latin Loctcsta, designated both 
the lobster and the grasshopper. The 
Latin name derived from the Greek, was, 
Scarabcsus, the French, Scarabde. To the 
people of our day, the high position en- 
joyed in the religion of Ancient Egypt 
by this insect, appears very strange, for to 
us, there is nothing attractive about it. 
With that people however it held, for 
some fifty centuries ; the position in their 
religion which the Latin cross now holds 
with us as Christians, and if we consider 
for an instant, our own veneration for the 
latter ; it would doubtless have been con- 
sidered, by those unfamiliar with our 
religion, as also based on a veneration 



THE CROSS AS A SYMBOL. 



for a very strange emblem ; for the cross 
was the instrument used by the Romans 
for punishing with death, murderers and 
criminals of the lowest type ; and what 
would be thought to-day, of a man wor- 
shipping the gallows or the guillotine, or 
carrying copies modeled from the same, 
suspended from his neck. However we 
of to-day all understand the emblem of 
the cross, and the Ancient Egyptians in 
their time, all understood the emblem of 
the scarab. 

" Men are rarely conscious of the prej- 
udices, which really incapacitate them, 
from forming impartial and true judg- 
ments on systems alien to their own habits 
of thought. And philosophers who may 
pride themselves on their freedom from 
prejudice, may yet fail to understand; 
whole classes of psychological phenomena 
which are the result of religious practice, 
and are familiar to those alone to whom 



THE SCARAB^ID^. 



such practice is habitual." * Said Thes- 
pesion to Apollonius Tyanaeus, according 
to the biography of the latter, by Philos- 
tratus; "The Egyptians do not venture 
to give form to their deities, they only 
give them in symbols which have an 
occult meaning." 

The family of the ScarabceidcB or Cop- 
ropkagi is quite large, the type of the 
family is the genus Ateuchus, the mem- 
bers of this genus are more frequently 
found in the old world than the new, 
and of its forty species, thirty belong to 
Africa. 

The sacred scarab of the Egyptians 
was termed by Linnaeus, the Scarabceits 
sacer, but later writers have named it, 
Ateuchus sacer. This insect is found 
throughout Egypt, the southern part of 
Europe, in China, the East Indies, 

*P. Le Page Renouf in : The Origin and Growth of 
Religion, as illustrated by the Religion of Ancient Egypt. 
New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 6. 



THE SCARABiEID^. 



in Barbary and at the Cape of Good 
Hope, Western Asia and Northern Africa. 
It is black and about one inch in 
length. 

There was also another species of the 
scarabaeus valued by the Ancient Egyp- 
tians, that termed by Cuvier, the Ateuchus 
sacer ^gyptiorum, which is larger and 
wider than the others of its family ; it is 
of green golden tints, and is now found 
principally in Egypt and Nubia. Pliny, 
in his Natural History says: "The green 
scarabaeus has the property of rendering 
the sight more piercing, (i.e., curing 
fatigue of the eye from its green color,) 
of those who gaze upon it ; hence it is, 
that the engravers of precious stones 
use these insects to steady their sight."* 
M. Latreille thinks ; the species he named 
Ateuchus ^gyptiorum, or -^XtoxavGapo?, and 

* Pliny's Natural History. Bk. XXIX. , ch. 38 end. Bohn 
ed. by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, London, 1856, Vol. V. , 
p. 416. 



THE SCARAB^ID^. 



which is of a green color, was that which 
especially engaged the attention of the 
Ancient Egyptians. 

The Egyptian also held in estimation, 
the species Buprestis and the Cantharis 
and CopriSy and used them as he did the 
members of the true family of the scara- 
bseidae, and S. Passalacqua found a species 
of Buprestis, embalmed in a tomb at 
Thebes. 

At least four species of beetles appear 
to have been held in veneration and were 
distinguished, by the absence or presence, 
of striated elytra. The Ateuchus sacer 
is the one commonly represented on the 
monuments. The number of the toes, 
thirty, symbolized the days of the month, 
and the movement of the ball, which it 
manufactured and in which was deposited 
its ^^'g, symbolized among other things, 
the action of Ra, the Egyptian sun-deity, 
at midday. 



USE AS A SIGNET. 



The Egyptian soldier wore the scarab 
as a charm or amulet, to increase bravery;* 
the women, to increase fertility. The 
Greeks called it, Helio-cantharus, and, not 
understanding its significance, were dis- 
posed to ridicule it, as is apparent from 
the travesty upon it by Aristophanes in 
his comedy of Peace. Pliny also again 
speaks of it in his Natural History, saying : 

"The scarabseus also, that forms pellets 
and rolls them along. It is on account 
of this kind of scarabasus that the people 
of a great part of Egypt worship those 
insects as divinities, an usage for which 
Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, 
as he does, by way of justifying the rites 
of his nation, that the insect in its opera- 
tions portrays the revolution of the sun. 

* Plutarch says : ' ' The Egyptian warriors had a beetle 
carved upon their signets, because there is no such thing as a 
female beetle ; for they are all males," etc. — Of Isis and Osiris 
§§ ID, 74, in Plutarch's Morals. Wm. W. Goodwin's English 
edition. Boston, 1878, Vol. IV., pp. 73, 132. Comp. .^lian 
X., 15. 



PLINY QUOTED. 



There is also another kind of scarabaeus, 
which the magicians recommend to be 
worn as an amulet — the one that has 
small horns * thrown backwards — It must 
be taken up, when used for this purpose, 
with the left hand. A third kind also, 
known by the name of ' fullo' and 
covered with white spots, they recommend 
to be cut asunder and attached to either 
arm, the other kinds being worn upon the 
left arm."f 

In the work on Egyptian hieroglyph- 
ics attributed to a writer called Hora- 
pollo, sometimes incorrectly called, Horus 
Apollo, the first part of which shows, that 
it was written by a person who was well 
acquainted with the Egyptian monuments 
and had studied them carefully, we find : 
**To denote an only begotten, or, genera- 

* Probably the " lucanus" mentioned in Bk. XI., ch. 34, 
supposed to be the same as, the stag beetle. 

f Bk. XXX., ch. 30. Bohn ed., Vol. V., p. 454. See also 
Vol. III., p. 34; Bk. XI., ch. 34. 



HORAPOLLO QUOTED. 



Hon, or, 2, father, or, the world, or, a vtan, 
they delineate a scarabaeus. And they 
symboHze by this, an only begotte^i ; be- 
cause the scarabseus is a creature self- 
produced, being unconceived by a female ; 
for the propagation of it is unique and 
after this manner : — when the male is 
desirous of procreating, he takes the dung 
of an ox, and shapes it into a spherical 
form like the world ; he then rolls it from 
him by the hinder parts from East to 
West, looking himself towards the East, 
that he may impart to it the figure of the 
world (for that is borne from East to 
West, while the course of the stars is 
from West to East;) then having dug a 
hole, the scarabseus deposits this ball in 
the earth for the space of twenty-eight 
days, (for in so many days the moon 
passes through the twelve signs of the 
zodiac.) By thus remaining under the 
moon, the race of scarabsei is endued 



HORAPOLLO QUOTED. 



with life ; and upon the nine and twentieth 
day after, having opened the ball, it casts 
it into the water, for it is aware, that upon 
that day the conjunction of the moon and 
sun takes place, as well as the generation 
of the world. From the ball thus opened 
in the water, the animals, that is the 
j scarabsei, issue forth. The scarabseus 
also symbolizes generation, for the reason 
before mentioned ; — and 2. father, because 
the scarabseus is engendered by a father 
only ; — and the world because in Its 
generation it is fashioned in the form of 
the world ; — and a man, because there is 
not any female race among them. More- 
over there are three species of scarabaei, 
the first like a cat,* and irradiated, which 
species they have consecrated to the sun 
from this similarity ; for they say that the 
male cat changes the shape of the pupils 

* There is likely the word eye omitted here, it shining like 
a cat's eye. Myer. 



HORAPOLLO QUOTED. 



of his eyes according to the course of the 
sun ; for in the morning at the rising of 
the god, they are dilated, and in the middle 
of the day become round, and about sun- 
set, appear less brilliant ; whence also, the 
statue of the god in the city of the sun* 
is of the form of a cat. Every scarabseus 
also has thirty toes, corresponding to the 
thirty days duration of the month, during 
which the rising sun performs his course. 
The second species is the two-horned and 
bull-formed ; which are consecrated to the 
moon ; whence the children of the Egyp- 
tians say, that the bull in the heavens is 
the exaltation of this goddess. The third 
species is, the one-horned and Ibis-formed, 
which they regard as sacred to Hermes 
(i.e.,Thoth.) in like manner as the bird."f J 

* Heliopolis. Myer. 

f The Ibis which was sacred to Thoth. Myer. 

^ The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous, by Alexander 
Turner Cory. London, 1840. See also, Horapollinis Niloi 
Hieroglyphica edidit, etc., Conradus Leemans, Amstelodami, 
1835. 



SCARAB^US IN ASTRONOMY. 



Horapollo also says: "To denote 
Hephsestos (Ptah,) they delineate a 
scarabseus and a vulture, and to denote 
Athena ( Neith,) a vulture and a scar- 
abaeus." * 

The scarabaeus also had an astronom- 
ical value and is placed on some zodiacs 
in place of the crab. It may be found on 
the outside, or square planisphere, of the 
zodiac of the Temple of Denderah. Some 
archaeologists think it preceded the crab, 
as the emblem of the division of the 
zodiac called by us, Cancer. Its emblem, 
as shown on the Hindu zodiac, looks 
more like a beetle or other insect than it 
does like a crab.f 

The religious feeling for it, most 
probably existed among the early Ethio- 

* Ptah Tore, the deformed pigmy god of Memphis, has a 
scarabseus on his head, and sometimes, stands on the figure of 
a crocodile. Ibid.. Cory's ed., p. 29. 

\ Religions de VAntiquite, etc., du Dr. Fred. Creuzer, 
edition of J. D. Guigniaut. Paris, 1825, Vol. I., part 2, 
Hindu plates XVII., Egyptian plates XLIX. 



SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARABJEUS. T3 

pians, before the migration of the ancient 
race who were the originators of the 
Egyptians, into the land on the banks of 
the Nile. The cult is shown in more 
modern times by the veneration of the 
Hottentot for the same insect, and from 
the worship of the Holy Cricket by the 
natives of Madagascar. The Egyptians 
held the scarabseus especially sacred to 
Amen-Ra, i.e., the mystery of the sun- 
god. It was their symbol of the creative 
and fertilizing power, of the re-birth, 
resurrection and immortality of the soul, 
and was, through this, connected with 
their astronomical and funeral rites and 
knowledge. It was, as the living insect, 
the first living creature seen coming to 
life from the fertilizing mud of the Nile, 
under the influence of the hot rays of the 
sun, after the subsidence of the inundat- 
ing waters of that river. The royal 
cartouches of their kings is in an oval 



14 SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARAB, 

taken from the form of its under side. 
And this oval form has existed from the 
most remote times that we have any 
knowledge of the cartouch. 

It is often found portrayed, as if a 
passenger in a boat, with extended wings ; 
holding in its claws the globe of the sun, 
or elevated in the firmament, as the type 
of the creating power of the sun-god Ra, 
in the meridian. Other deities are some- 
times shown praying to it* 

Ptah the Creative Power, and also 
Khepera, a kosmogonic deity of the 
highest type, had the scarab assigned to 
them as an emblem. It was one of the 
forms symbolic of the Demiurge or Maker 
of our universe. It was also the emblem 
of Ptah Tore, of Memphis, another sym- 

*For such pictures see, Thomas J. Pettigrew's Hist, of 
Egyptian Mummies. London, 1834, Plate 8, Nos, i, 2 and 3. 
Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 
2nd Series. London, 1841, Vol, II., p. 256. Scarab^es 
£,gyptiens, figures du Musie des Antiquea de sa tnajest^ I'em- 
■pereur, Vienne, 1824. 



TALISMAN AND AMULETS. 1 5 

bolic form of the creative power. It was 
assigned as an emblem of Ptah-Sokari- 
Osiris, the pigmy deity of Memphis, 
being placed on his head, and this deity 
was sometimes represented under the 
form of a scarab. It was also an emblem 
of Ra, the sun deity ; also, an emblem of 
the world or universe ; and was, as I have 
said, connected with astronomy and with 
funeral rites, and the second birth or re- 
birth, of the soul. ^ 
Another use of the scarabseus by the 
Egyptians was as an amulet and talisman, 
both for the living and the dead ; and for 
that reason, images, symbols or words; sup- 
posed to be agreeable to the deity, or to the 
evil spirit sought to be conciliated ; were 
incised, or engraved in intaglio, upon the 
under side. It was also used as a signet 
to impress on wax, clay or other material, 
so as to fasten up doors, boxes, etc., con- 
taining valuable things, so they could not 



l6 USE AS A SIGNET. 

be opened without breaking the impres- 
sion. The engraving on the under surface 
of the scarab was also impressed on wax, 
etc., to verify the execution of, or to keep 
secret, written documents; and in some 
instances, the papyrus or linen, was writ- 
ten upon, then rolled up, and a string 
used to fasten it ; an impression of the 
signet, made on wax or other material, 
was then placed on it and the string, so 
that it could not be opened without break- 
ing the impression. 
' In very ancient paintings especially 
those in the tombs of the kings of Thebes, 
the scarabseus plays a most remarkable 
part, as an emblem of the creating first 
source of life, which passes from it to the 
embryo, through the intermediary of a 
celestial generator, who is intended to 
represent the Makrokosm or great Ideal 
Man, as the demiurgos. We find the idea 
of the Makrokosm or great Ideal Man, 



THE MAKROKOSM. 



permeating- those writings termed, the 
Books of Hermes Trismegistos, which 
have reached our day, and which, with 
some more recent matter, contain miich 
very old, Egyptian philosophy.* State- 
ments as to the Ideal Prototype and the 
Primordial Man, are apparently, set forth 
in many of the Ancient Egyptian writings, i 

* Religions de VAntiquite, etc., du Dr. Fred. Creuzer, re- 
fondu, etc., par J. D. Guigniaut, Vol. I., part 2, Note 6, 
p. 821 et seq., p. 948 et seq., Nos. 187 and 187a of Plate 
XLVIII. and pp. 80, 82, As to the Makrokosm see, The 
Qabbalah, etc. , by Isaac Myer. Philadelphia, 1888. Also; 
Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed. i^Exemplaire hie'roglyphique du 
livre des morts) etc., by Theodule Deveria, translation by 
Paul Pierret. Paris, 1872, p. 9. 



II. 

MANUFACTURE OF THE SCARAB^EI. MATERI- 
ALS. INSCRIPTIONS ON. DIFFERENT 
PERIODS OF MANUFACTURE AND THE 
PECULIARITIES OF. HOW TO JUDGE OF 
THE EPOCH. 

THE representations of the Insect are 
among the earliest sculpture of 
stones known, and were cut in various 
materials, steatite a species of soapstone 
being one of the earliest used. Some were 
perhaps first moulded in clay, dried, and 
then cut into shape. 

Many of those in use in Egypt were 
carved out of opaque or semi-transparent 
stones, and those cut in hard stone were 
usually made of some one of the following 
varieties : green basalt, diorite, granite, 



MANUFACTURE. 



haematite, lapis lazuli, jasper, serpentine, 
verde antique, smalt, root of emerald, 
which is the same as plasma or prase* 
cornelian, amethyst, sardonyx, agate and 
onyx. Those of soft material were cut 
out of steatite, a soft limestone similar to 
chalk, but usually they were of a white or 
grayish slaty stone easily cut and which 
stood fire. After having been cut into the 
correct shape, these were glazed in the 
fire, with enamels of different colors, 
usually of a light bluish green. Those 
found now of a brownish or dirty white 
color, have lost the original color of the 
glaze from the ravages of time. Some 
were of clay only sun-dried, others of clay 
burned into pottery. They were also 

* This is chalcedony penetrated by minute green fibres of 
hornblende. It is now found principally in India and China. 
The color is frequently equal to that of the finest emerald, but 
the yellow patches or black spots running through it, dis- 
tinguish its species. Ancient specimens have been found free 
of these marks and very transparent. They may have had a 
method in ancient times of freeing the stone from these spots. 



ENGRAVING ON. 



made of porcelain, and also, but rarely, of 
colored glass. They have also been found 
made of gold, ivory and even of wood. 
Champollion thinks, that certain signets 
found made of wood or pottery bearing 
the figure of the scarabseus in intaglio, 
were used to mark the victims which had 
been examined and passed as proper for 
the sacrifice. The scarabs, as we have 
remarked, were usually engraved with In- 
cised hieroglyphic symbols on the under 
side, frequently with those used on one of 
his cartouches by the reigning pharaoh, 
and were then worn by their owners to 
show veneration for him, as the repre- 
sentative of the deity upon earth, or from 
national pride. The names of deities, 
officials, private persons, and even only 
monograms or devices, at later periods, 
were engraved on the bases. The best 
class were usually made of a fine, hard, 
green basalt ; sometimes they were joined 



METHOD OF ENGRAVING. 



to the representation of the human heart 
on which was inscribed " Life, Stability 
and Protection." This was evidently talis- 
manic. 

The principal period of their manufac- 
ture in large quantities, was in the reign 
of Tehuti-mes, or Thotmes Ilird, of the 
XVIIIth Dynasty {circa 1 600-1 566 B.C.) 
Other times were the XlXth and XXth 
Dynasties. 

The large and small scarabs form two 
classes. Those two to three inches in 
length belong to the larger, and were 
usually for use inside of the mummies in 
place of the heart. There are also some 
of very large size ; one made of basalt 
now in the British Museum, is five feet 
high. 

The making of the shape of the scarab 
in cameo, in soft material was easily done, 
and the incising of its flat under surface 
with the hieroglyphics not difficult ; the 



HISTORICAL SCARABS. 



artist most likely used, one or more in- 
struments of different sizes, formed at 
the end like a very small chisel or brad- 
awl, and gouged or punched out the 
figures and inscriptions desired, before 
the glazing or enameling was put on, this 
gave a flat appearance at the depth or 
bottom of the incised work. On those of 
hard stone they used hand-drills or the 
lathe. 

I condense the following remarks, 
adding however some of my own, from a 
very valuable little book recently pub- 
lished by the learned egyptologist Mr. 
W. M. Flinders Petrie, entitled : Histori- 
cal Scarabs.* 

I regret Mr. Petrie's lithographic draw- 
ings are so blurred that they are difficult 
to read, and hope that he will, in the near 

* Historical Scarabs. A series of Drawings from the 
Principal Collections. Arranged chronologically, by W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, author of, Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, 
etc. London, D. Nutt, 1889. 



HISTORICAL SCARABS. 23 

future, get out a more artistic and complete 
book on this important subject.* 

He shows 2,220 examples of incised 
historical scarabs. The first genuine 
historical scarabs he gives copies of, are 
those of Neb-ka of the Ilird Dynasty ; 
(^circa 3933-3900 B.C.) He also shows 
some of the period of Nefer-ka-Ra or 
Huni, mentioned in Brugsch's History of 
the Pharaohs, pages 27 and 32 ; who lived 
3800 B.C. The name Ra, forming part 
of the king's name at this period, is very 
unusual. It was not used, as a portion of 
his name, by any other Egyptian king 
from the 1st Dynasty to the second king 
of the IVth or Great Pyramid Dynasty, 
named Tatf-Ra. The next king to him 
was Khaf-Ra. The reign of Tatf-Ra was 

*I have generally used in this work the ordinary well known 
forms of the Egyptian proper names, such as Rameses, Thot- 
mes, Amen-hotep, etc., instead of the more unusual, but more 
correct and learned, names : Ra-messu, Tehuti-mes, Amen- 
hetep, etc. The dates are based on those of Dr. Heinrich 
Brugsch-Bey. 



24 PROGRESS IN QUALITY OF WORK. 

preceded by that of Khufu, the Kheops 
of the Greek writers, builder of the Great 
Pyramid; («V^^ 3733-3700 B.C.) 

The scarabs of the time of Khufu are 
all small and of fine work but without 
elaboration, and the colors are delicate, 
beautiful and permanent. Under Khaf- 
Ra or Khefren, there was a deterioration ; 
the work is inferior and the glazing has 
often perished, indeed good glazes are 
rare after this period until the Xlth Dy- 
nasty ; {circa 2500 B.C.) The glazes of 
this latter period are hard, unalterable 
and of fine colors, some under the Xllth 
are fine but often they are decomposed. 
Blue is a special color of this time and it 
is also used in the sculpture. Under 
Pepi, IVth Dynasty, {circa 3233 B.C.,) the 
scroll pattern first arises as a system, but 
is not found continuously in the scarabs 
of his period. In the Xllth Dynasty, 
(2466-2266 B.C.,) the continuous scroll 



COLORS OF SCARABS. 2$ 

pattern was developed, it became general 
in the Xlllth, («><;« 2233 b.c.,) and XI Vth 
Dynasties, and lingered as far as the 
XlXth (1400 B.C.) 

Brown scarabs were originally green 
glazed but have faded, white were origin- 
ally blue, excepting possibly some of 
Amen-hotep Illrd. There are also white 
and gray, without any glaze remaining, 
which were originally blue or green. 

The cowroids, with a rope border on 
the back, are of the Hyksos period. 

The XVIIIth Dynasty (i 700-1400 
B.C.,) begins with some of a poor style but 
it soon disappeared. The peculiarity of the 
first part of this Dynasty is the dark green 
glaze — rather greyish — this was followed 
by those of brilliant tints in the time of 
Amen-hotep Ilird, (i 500-1433 b.c.,) those 
of red, yellow, violet, chocolate and other 
colors. They are never met with later. 

At the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty, 



26 DETERIORATION IN MANUFACTURE. 

pottery rings came into general use and 
are more frequently met with than scar- 
abs. Their range is from Amen-hotep 
Ilird to Rameses Ilnd. 

In the XVIIIth Dynasty the art of 
glazing deteriorated, and most of the 
scarabs of this period have now lost their 
original colors, and are at present only 
browns and greys. 

Under Rameses Ilnd and his succes- 
sors the work is poorly done. 

In the XXI Vth (the Saitic Period, 
circa ']2)Z b.c.,) and in the XXVth Dy- 
nasties, there was a revival and better 
work and glaze and there remain of this 
time some fine examples. 

The XXVIth (666-528 b.c. Saitic,) 
was poor in results but the work neat. 
The scarab form had nearly run its 
course and continued, in a debased style, 
until the close of the native monarchy 
with the XXXth Dynasty {circa 378 B.C.) 



PLACES OF MANUFACTURE. 27 

Place had much to do with the differ- 
ence between scarabs, local styles of 
manufacture made more differences than 
various Dynasties. This is a subject 
very difficult to investigate ; we have but 
few sources of information on this sub- 
ject. At ancient Tanis (now called by 
the Arabs, San,) they are all of schist, 
rough and small, the glaze nearly always 
gone ; within a short distance from there, 
at Nebesheh, they are usually of pottery 
with bright apple-green glazes; at Nauk- 
ratis, the Ancient Egyptian name of which 
was Am and which was a city in the time 
of the Xllth Dynasty, they are mostly of 
soft glazed pottery, or, of a blue paste, 
and nearly all are small ; in the ruins of 
this city was found a factory for making 
Greek scarabs in imitation of the Egyptian 
style.* It is said, that those with scroll 

*Ten Years Digging in Egypt, etc., by W. M. Flinders 
Petrie. London, 1892, p. 45. 



28 DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING THE PERIOD. 

border, are from the ancient city of 
Abydos. 

A curious thing is, the re-issue of 
those of an earlier king by a later 
monarch, examples of these are, re-issues 
under queen Hatshepsu {circa 1600 B.C.,) 
and Tehuti-mes Ilird {circa 1 600-1 566 
B.C.,) of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The 
earlier and later names are often on one 
scarab. We cannot therefore be sure of 
the age of a scarab, even from the in- 
scription, as it may be of a period subse- 
quent to the king named on it. However 
these re-issues were only in a few special 
periods. One point to be noted is, we 
find similar work and color in the majority 
of those made under each pharaoh, and 
such style is different from that of any 
earlier or later age ; through this we have 
a guide as to the original dating of most 
scarabs from the IVth Dynasty to the end. 
No subsequent period shows us similar- 



DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING THE PERIOD. 29 

ities to the majority of the scarabs of any- 
one king. 

To the unlearned probably all scarabs 
look alike, but to an eye educated on the 
subject, the peculiarities of each Dynasty, 
and even of separate reigns, become evi- 
dent. The value of scarabs to the 
historian is therefore great, as the study 
of scarabs will reveal, the names of kings 
unknown heretofore from any of the other 
monuments so far discovered. 



III. 

METHOD, PERIOD AND ANTIQUITY, OF EN- 
GRAVING THE SCARAB AND OTHER 
FORMS. USE OF RINGS. MENTION OF, 
AND OF ENGRAVING AND SEALING, IN 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. USE OF CYLIN- 
DER SIGNETS BY THE EGYPTIANS. RE- 
LATIONS WITH MESOPOTAMIA. CARVING 
OF DIORITE AND OTHER HARD STONE. 
THE EGYPTIANS DID NOT BORROW 
THEIR ENGRAVING AND THE SCARAB, 
FROM MESOPOTAMIA. DISUSE OF 

SCARABS. 

THE art of the lapidary is asserted in 
the Book of Enoch, to have been 
taught to mankind by the angel Azazel,* 
chief of the angels who took to themselves 

* The Book of Enoch, etc., by Rev. George H. Schodde, 
Ph.D. Andover, 1882, pp. 67, 68. 



ARCHAIC ENGRAVING ON STONE. 3I 

wives from among the daughters of men. 
The most ancient method consisted, in 
obtaining a flat surface by rubbing or 
scraping, with corundum or other hard and 
wearing stone, the stone to be engraved. 
If a very hard stone, the incising or cutting 
was done by driUing, wearing and poHsh- 
ing, through attrition, by means of a 
wooden or metal point, kept in connection 
with a silicious sand or corundum, by the 
medium of oil or water ; and also, by the 
use of the punch and of the wheel. The 
Greek artists likely used powdered emery 
and copper drills. Bronze and iron drills, 
and those of other metals may have been 
used at a very early period. Pliny says, 
corundum was used in the form of a 
splinter fixed in an iron style. The an- 
cients also appear at a very early period, 
to have used diamond dust and oil, and 
diamond splinters, framed in iron. 

It has been shown by recent investiga- 



32 USE OF JEWELED DRILLS. 

tions, that the Ancient Egyptians, before 
the building of the Great Pyramid ; cut 
diorite, syenite and other very hard stone, 
by means of saws, some of them nine feet 
long, having jeweled teeth inserted ; and 
that they excavated the centre of large 
blocks of hard stones for use as sarco- 
phagi, etc., by means of tubular or circular 
hollow drills, the cutting surface of which 
was armed with jewels. They then took 
out the core and broke down the par- 
titions between the drilled holes, with the 
chisel and hammer, and thus made large 
excavations in the block of hard stone. 
They also used lathes at a most archaic 
period in cutting diorite and other hard 
stones.* They also used the bow-drill.f 
They also may have known and used 
boort. 

*Ten Years Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W. M'. 
Flinders Petrie, etc. The Religious Tract Soc. London, 
1892, pp. 19, 20, 26 et seq., 119. 

\Ibid., p. 119. 



ENGRAVING HARD STONE. 33 

As early as the first Theban Dynasty, 
the Xllth Egyptian (2466-2266 b.c.,) 
the Dynasty in which lived the Amen- 
em-hats and the Usertsens, the great early 
art period of the Egyptian empire,* the 
Egyptians engraved on amethyst, jasper 
and rock crystal, and at that early period 
did some of the most beautiful work re- 
maining to us of their glyptography. The 
signets however were not always in 
scarab form, they were sometimes squares 
or parallelograms.f 

There is now in the Museum of the 
Louvre in Paris, France, the finest old 
cameo in the world. It is of the reign of 
Amen-em-hat Ilird of the Xllth Dynasty, 
(2300 B.C.) This was the first Theban 
Dynasty and is a very rare period for 
Egyptian cameo work, as they then 

* Egypt Under the Pharaohs, etc., by Heinrich Brugsch- 
Bey. London, 1891, p. %oetseq. 

f M. Menant ya., Les Pierres Gravies de la Haute-Asie, 
Paris, 1886, Part II., p. 193 et seq. 



34 ENGRAVING HARD STONE. 

usually incised their engraving on pre- 
cious stones and did not engrave them in 
relief.* The stone is a square sardonyx 
and is engraved in relief, with great fine- 
ness on one side, with a figure the name 
of which can be read Ha-ro-bes, the other 
side is incised and has the figure of a 
pharaoh killing a prisoner, whom he holds 
by the beard, with a mace ; the cartouch 
reads, Ra-en-ma, i.e., Amen-em-hat Illrd. 
The intaglio work on this side is not 
equal to that in cameo, on the other. 

There is yet in existence the signet 
ring of the celebrated Queen Hatshepsu 
(circa 1 600-1 566 B.C.) It is made of fine 
turquoise, cut in the form of a scarab, 
perforated longitudinally and hung on a 
swivel. On the under side is engraved 
the family name of the Queen.f There 

* Ibid., p. 194. 

\Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la Philol. et a I'ArchM. 
Egypt, etc., publid de sous la direction de G. Maspero. Paris, 
1888, Vol. X., p. 126. 



GLYPTICS IN EZEKIEL. 35 

also exists the signet ring of Amen- 
hotep Ilnd, (i 566-1 533 b.c.,) having in- 
serted in it a fine green glazed scarab.* 

The description of the working and 
engraving of precious stones in the Vllth 
century before our era, is given in Ezekielf 
where addressing the king of Tyre, he 
says : " Thou art covered with precious 
stones of all kinds, with the ruby, emerald, 
diamond, hyacinth, onyx, jasper, sapphire, 
carbuncle, sardonyx and gold. The wheels 
and drills of the lapidaries, were prepared 
in thy service for the day in which thou 
wert created." 

The use of the signet ring is frequently 
mentioned in the Old Testament. J There, 
are also the phrases, "Sealed up in a 

*ibid. 

■j-XXVIII., 13. Comp. De Luynes, Numismatique des 
Satrapies, p. 71. G. Perrot and C. Chipiez, Histoire de 
VArt Phenicie, Vol. III., p. 632. 

X\ Kings, XXI., 8 ; Deut. XXXII., 34; Neh. IX., 38, 
XL, i; Esth. VIII., 8, 10. 



36 SEALING IN HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 

bag;"* "A book that is sealed ;"f 
" Written evidence sealed ; " J " Sealed 
with clay;"§ "Sealing with the signet 
of the king." || There are also many 
places referring to the use of seals in the 
New Testament. 

In Genesis, we find Thamar asking 
from Judah, his seal, seal string and staff; 
in pledge.** In the same book, but refer- 
ring to a much later period,ff Pharaoh 
takes his signet ring, in which was likely 
set a scarab, from his hand and puts it on 
the hand of Joseph, so as to confer sover- 
eign authority upon him.JJ 

*Job XIV., 17. 

flsa. XXIX., 11; Dan. IX., 24, XII., 49, 

tjer. XII., 10, XXXII., 11, 14, 44- 

§Job XXXVIII., 14; Isa. VIII., 16. 

iDan. VI., 17; Esth. III., 12, VIII., 8, 10 ; i Kings, 
XXI., 8. 

**Gen. XXXVIII., 18, 25, 26. 

^\/did. XLI., 42. 

Xt Brugsch-Bey says : "The immigration of Joseph into 
Egypt was about 1730 B.C., near the time of the reign of the 
Hyksos King, Nub." Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 
1891, p. 120 ei seq. 



ENGRAVING IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 37 

In Exodus,* mention is made of the 
engraving of Shoham stones as a signet, 
i.e., in intaglio, as done by Betzaleel for 
the ephod of the High Priest, and for his 
breastplate, engraved in the same way; 
these were hard precious stones. We do 
not know with certainty the names of 
these stones in English. The Hebrew 
names of those on the first row of the 
ephod, are ; odem, piteda^ bareketh; second 
row, nopkesk, sapkir, yahlome ; third row, 
leshdme, skevo, aJkalama; fourth and last 
row, tar s his h^ shoham, yoshphd. 

Some archaeologists argue, that the 
original form of the Egyptian seal was 
that of a cylinder, and from thence would 
deduce, that the Egyptians, or at the least 
Egyptian art, came from Mesopotamia. 
I would now say, that I do not believe 
that fact can be correctly deduced, from 
the cylindrical form sometimes used in 

* XXXIX., 6, 7, 10, 14. 



38 CYLINDER SIGNETS. 

Egypt. The cylinder perforated is only 
a form of the bead, and beads were one 
of the earliest forms of decoration and 
ornament, used by primitive man. The 
earliest shape of genuine seals known and 
used in Egypt, is that in the scarab form 
and that form is peculiarly Egyptian; 
cylinders however were sometimes used 
by that people in early times. The 
Egyptians at a time, to us beyond all 
positive history, took advantage of and 
used the intaglio seal, so as to secure, by 
its impression, the authenticity of personal 
acts whether done by the sovereign, his 
chancellor, or his treasurer, or by private 
individuals ; and they sometimes made use 
of signets of a cylindrical form, which 
they applied upon clay or wax, but such 
were not frequently used in Egypt. The 
cartouch of the earliest known king, 
Mena, (4400 b.c.,) is in the form of the out- 
line of the under side of the scarab. 



OVAL AROUND CARTOUCHES. 39 

It was because of its shape, the oval, 
ellipse, or ring form of the line around the 
cartouch, it not having an end ; that the 
pharaohs, always having in mind im- 
mortality, have placed their names within 
that form. The incised oval capable of 
producing millions of impressions, would 
also be thought of as an emblem of re- 
production, renewment and eternity. 

Indeed in all the different epochs of 
its greatness, we will find used in Egypt, 
a few cylinders of hard stone upon which 
are well engraved cartouches. There is 
one in serpentine in the National Library 
of Paris bearing the name of Khufu or 
Kheops, of the IVth Dynasty, (3733 
B.C.,) builder of the Great Pyramid at 
Gizeh. They have been found of soap- 
stone made in the period of the IVth 
Dynasty, and of schist enameled green, 
of the periods of Amen-em-hat 1st, Amen- 
em-hat Ilnd and of Sovkhotpu Ilird, 



40 CYLINDER SIGNETS, EGYPTIAN. 

pharaohs of the Xllth and Xlllth Dy- 
nasties. These were royal cylinders. 
After the XVIIIth Dynasty such are 
very rare in that form. 

"The cylinders," says a very learned 
writer upon Oriental Glyptic Art; "what- 
ever may be their material, have never 
shown the mark of a foreign influence 
upon the soil of Egypt. Nevertheless the 
relations of Egypt and Chaldea date from 
the very highest antiquity."* Scarabs 
became unfashionable in Egypt in the 
Xllth Dynasty and cylinders were largely 
used. They were used by the Usertsens 
and the Amen-em-has, but after the Xllth 
Dynasty cylinders are rare in Egypt. 
The shape of the cartouch does not appear 
to have been changed. 

Rings came into fashion with Amen- 
hotep Ilird and died out under Rameses 

* M. Joachim Menant, Les Pierres Gravies de la Haute- 
Asie. Recherches sur la Glyptique Orientale. Paris, 1 886, 
Part II., p. 197. 



ARCHAIC DIORITE STATUES. 41 

Ilnd, the last king whose name we find on a 
bezel. I do not deny that relations existed 
from the most archaic periods between 
the people of Mesopotamia and those of 
Egypt, the discoveries of the magnificent 
sculpture in and beautifully incised writing 
on, green diorite; one of the hardest, 
toughest, and heaviest, stones known ; 
found at Telloh by M. de Sarzec, which 
had to be brought in large blocks from 
the quarries of Sinai ; take us back to the 
most remote period, in which we have 
any knowledge of the inhabitants of 
Lower Mesopotamia. One of the most 
wonderful ancient statues in existence is 
that of king Khaf-Ra of the IVth Dy- 
nasty, the Khephren of the Greek writers, 
builder of the second Great Pyramid of 
Gizeh, (^circa 3666 B.C.,) now in the 
Museum of Gizeh, Egypt. This statue, 
a full sized portrait-statue, is made of 
green diorite highly polished and is a 



42 CHALDEA AND EGYPT. 

magnificent work of Egyptian art. Its 
base is inscribed : " Image of the Golden 
Horus, Khephren, beautiful god, lord of 
diadems."* This shows, that the Egyp- 
tians worked the quarries of diorite at 
Sinai and sculptured in it, about 4000 B.c.f 
The figures found at Telloh are in a 
seated position, are sculptured in archaic 
Egyptian style, and are covered with 
beautifully incised writing. J 

I also know from the cuneiform in- 
scriptions, that relations existed between 
the First Empire of Chaldea and the 
pharaohs of the Great Pyramids of Gizeh, 
as early as the reign of the Chaldean 
king Naram-Sin; (^^W^ 3755 B.C.) Sub- 

*Brugsch-Bey in his, Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 
1891, p. 36 et seq. 

fM. Auguste Mariette, Outlines of Ancient Egyptian 
History, makes the IVth Dynasty begin at 4235 B.C. 

XDe'couvertes en Chaldde par M. Ernest de Sarzec, etc. 
Ouvrage accompagnd de planches, etc. Paris, 1884, et seq. 
See also, Article in Harper's Magazine, January, 1894, and 
Qabbalah, etc., by Isaac Myer. Philadelphia, 1888, p. 237 
et seq. 



EGYPTIAN ART NOT CHALDEAN. 43 

sequent to the periods cited, there exist 
a number of historical facts showing the 
knowledge of each other, possessed by 
the inhabitants of the valley of the Nile 
and the people of Mesopotamia.* 

The same specialist in Oriental glyp- 
tics, says: "The efforts of some learned 
men to discover traces of a reciprocal in- 
fluence have been fruitless. The pyramids 
of Egypt have no affinity with those of 
Chaldea, the sculpture of Egypt does not 
resemble in anything that of Nineveh or 
Caleb ; would the glyptic art have escaped 
that individual development which charac- 
terizes the two peoples ? I think not ; at 
least we have no proof of it."f 

And a very erudite archaeologist of 
our day, Hodder M. Westropp, holds ; 
that the Assyrian cylinders came into that 

*See the instances given by M. Menant in his Les Pierres 
Gravdes de la Haute-Asie. Recherches sur la Glyptique 
Orientale, etc. Paris, 1886, p. 197 et seq. 

\Ibid., p. 200. 



44 PERIOD OF HERETIC KINGS. 

country from Egypt and did not come 
from Assyria into Egypt* 

Scarabs went out of use under the so- 
called Heretic kings of the XVIIIth Dy- 
nasty. Some fine enamel work on other 
subjects was made in this period, showing 
that art had not degenerated, indeed the 
discoveries made in the ruins of Khuaten, 
the present town called Tell-el-Amarna, 
show remains of magnificent monuments 
sculptured in the period of the Heretic 
kings of Egypt, (^circa 1466-1400 B.C.) 

The scarab became again in use in the 
time of Hor-em-heb and Sethi I., and 
rings again became fashionable in Egypt. 

After the fall of the Ramessidian 
kings, the priestly Dynasty of Her-hor 
does not appear to have made use of them 
very largely. In the recent great dis- 

*Hand-book of Archaeology. London, 1867, pp. 253, 289. 
Recently Dr. Fritz Hommel, in his, Der babylonische 
Ursprung der dgyptischen Kultur, Miinchen, 1892, has 
endeavored to prove the contrary. 



PERIOD OF HERETIC KINGS. 45 

covery at Dayr-el-Baharee very few were 
found, and none bearing the name of Her- 
hor or his immediate family. 



IV. 

THE OLDEST SCARABS. CLASSIFICATION AND 
VALUE OF THE SCARAB TO THE SCHOLAR 
OF TO-DAY. LARGE INSCRIBED HISTORI- 
CAL SCARABS. 

THE oldest scarabs, as to which one 
can feel any certainty of their being 
genuine, are those I have mentioned bear- 
ing the name of Neb-Ka incised on the 
under surface. This pharaoh was of the 
Ilird Dynasty and was living according 
to Brugsch-Bey, (3933-3900 b.c.)* That 
would make 5,826 years past according to 
Brugsch. Auguste Mariette would make 
it much more ancient. 

These scarabs were made of pottery 
and glazed a pale green. It has been stated 
by some archaeologists that the oldest 

* Egypt Under the Pharaohs, etc. London, 1891, p. 20. 



FORMS OF SCARABS IN TOMBS. 47 

scarabs were not engraved, the under part 
being made to represent the legs of the 
beetle folded under its body, but this is 
only a supposition, as the age can only be 
determined with any certainty, by the in- 
scriptions incised on the under part and 
those not so inscribed, may be of different 
periods, some of very late times. 

The forms usually met with in the 
tombs are, first ; those with the lower part 
as a flat level surface for the purpose of 
having an inscription incised upon it ; 
those having the engraving incised upon 
such a surface ; and those with the legs 
inserted under them in imitation of nature. 
Sometimes the head and thorax are re- 
placed by a human face, and occasionally 
the body or the elytra have the form of 
the Egyptian royal cap. 

They often hold between the fore-legs 
representations of the sun. 

The smaller scarabs have as subjects 



48 CONTENT OF THE ENGRAVING. 

engraved upon them, representations of 
the Egyptian deities, the names of the 
reigning pharaohs, of queens, animals, re- 
ligious symbols, sacred, civil and funeral 
emblems, names of priests, nobles, officers 
of state and private individuals, ornaments, 
plants, and sometimes dates and numbers 
written in ciphers. Some have upon them 
mottoes, such as: "Good Luck," "A 
Happy Life," etc., being used for sealing 
letters, etc., and as presents. The larger 
sized have frequently texts and parts of 
chapters from the Book of the Dead. 

We can therefore make a general 
classification of scarabs into : 

L Mythological or Religious, con- 
taining subjects, figures or inscriptions, 
connected with kosmogony, kosmology, 
or, religion. 

IL Historical, containing royal car- 
touches and names of men, and figures re- 
lating to civil customs. 



CLASSIFICATION OF SCARABS. 49 

III. Physiographical, containing ani- 
mals or plants connected with consecrated 
symbols. 

IV. Funereal, connected with the Ka 
or life of the mummy in this world, and 
with the journey of his Ba or responsible 
soul, through the under-world. 

V. Talisman or Amulets, to preserve 
the wearer from injury in this world, by 
men or by evil spirits. 

VI. Signets or Seals for official use, 
to verify documents or evidence, protect 
property and correspondence, etc. 

VII. And others, which have upon 
them only ornamental designs, as to which 
we cannot, up to this time, ascertain the 
meaning. 

The Historical scarabs are of great 
value in ascertaining or displaying, in 
chronological series, the cartouches or 
shield names, if I may be permitted thus 
to term them, of the monarchs of Egypt ; 



50 HISTORICAL VALUE OF SCARABS. 

going from the most remote antiquity of 
the Egyptian kingdom, to a.d. 200. 

"The Ancient Egyptians," remarks 
the Rev. Mr. Loftie, in his admirable 
little book; Of Scarabs, p. 30 et seq., 
" happy people, had no money on which 
to stamp the image and superscription of 
their Pharaohs. A collection of scarabs, 
inscribed with the names of kings, stands 
therefore to Egyptian history as a collec- 
tion of coins stands to the history of the 
younger nations of the earth. The day 
must come when our Universities and 
other bodies of learned folk, will study 
the beginnings of things as they are pre- 
sented in Egyptian history, and some 
knowledge of these curious little objects 
will become indispensable to an educated 
man * * * * ^^^^ collection now 
arranged in the British Museum is second 
to none." 

I would also say, those in the Louvre 



COLLECTIONS OF SCARABS. 



at Paris, are now arranged chronologically. 
A good collection is also in the Egyptian 
Museum at Gizeh, collected by M. Mari- 
ette ; formerly it was very fine. Mr. W. 
M. Flinders Petrie asserts* that most 
have been stolen, and further says : " I 
hear that they were mainly sold to 
General Cesnola for New York." If 
these are in the possession of the Metro- 
politan Museum of New York City, it 
possesses a genuine and rare collection 
of scarabs. 

A large number of scarabs bear the 
names of the pharaonic kings ; this is not 
strange when we remember that the 
pharaoh was Horus, Khepera, and also 
a son of Ra and of Osiris. These car- 
touches are those of kings of orthodox 
Egyptian descent, we do not find the 
names of the Greek Ptolemies upon them, 

* Historical Scarabs, etc., by W. M. Flinders Petrie. 
London, 1889, p. 14. 



52 PROGRESS IN ART OF MAKING. 

the Roman Emperors, as conquerors, 
sometimes used them but that does not 
prove their abstract right to do so. 

The latest, in the collection belonging 
to France, is of Nectanebo the last native 
pharaoh, {circa 300 B.C.) 

Some of them, as did those of Thot- 
mes Ilird, bear the inscription, Ra-men- 
kheper, i.e., Ra, the sun-god establishes 
the future resurrection. This is found on 
fully one-half of the specimens from the 
XVI I Ith Dynasty down. 

The art of making the scarabs as I 
have said before, varies with the epochs. 
The most elegantly finished are those of 
the time of the IVth Dynasty (3733- 
3600 B.C.,) that of the Great Pyramids ; in 
the XI Ith Dynasty (2466-2266 B.C.,) fine 
work again appears, then comes inartistic 
work. Again with the XVI I Ith Dynasty 
( 1 700-1433 B.C.,) arises another period of 
splendor, and the art after again deteri- 



VERY LARGE SCARABS. 53 

orating revived under the XXVIth, the 
Saitic Dynasty, (666-528 B.C.) 

Amenophis (or Amen-hotep) Ilird 
of the XVIIIth Dynasty, the Memnon of 
the Greeks,* {circa 1500- 1466 b.c.,) had 
a number of large scarabs made, their 
object was not sepulchral nor were they to 
be used as talisman, but they apparently 
were made for the incising upon them, of 
purely historical inscriptions ; such monu- 
ments are exceedingly rare and are almost 
limited to the time of this Pharaoh. In 
the great building erected by him, now 
known as the Temple of Luxor, were 
found four of these great inscribed scarabs. 
Rosellini has given copies and explana- 
tions of two of them. Dr. Samuel Birch 
has given a translation of them, which I 
think is subject to revision. f One relates 
to the marriage of Amen-hotep Ilird in 

* Egj^Jt Under the Pharaohs, by Brugsch-Bey. London, 
1891, pp. 205, 206, 208. 

f Records of the Past, Vol. XII., p, 37 ^^ seq. 



54 AMENOPHIS III. 



the tenth year of his reign, with his queen 
Thya, (Taia, or Thai ;) a second relates to 
the same subject and to the arrival of 
Thya and Gilukipa in Egypt, with 317 
women ; a third, now in the Vatican, men- 
tions a tank or sacred lake, made for the 
queen Thya, in the eleventh year and third 
month of his reign, to celebrate the Festi- 
val of the Waters, on which occasion he 
entered it, in a boat of "the most gracious 
Disk of Ra," i.e., the sun-god. This sub- 
stitution of the boat of the " Disk of Ra" 
for the usual boat of Amen-Ra, is the first 
indication of a new, or heretical, sun 
worship.* 

One in the Museum of the Louvre 
(No. 580-747, Vitrine N.) reads: "The 
living Horus, the bull strong through the 
Ma, the sovereign of the two regions, 
supporter of the laws and preserver of the 

* Bunsen. Egypt's Place in Hist., etc., III., p. 142, etc. ; 
also Records of Past, above cited. 



AMENOPHIS III. 55 



land (country,) the Horus triumphant 
and great by his valor, vanquisher of the 
Asiatics, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
Ra-ma-neb ( the prenomen of the king,) 
son of the sun, Amenophis TIL, giving 
life. The queen Taia living. 

Account of the lions brought from 
Asia by his Majesty, namely : from the 
first year to the tenth, savage lions 102." 

Another in the same Museum (582-787, 
Vitrine N.) This begins, as the preceding, 
with an eulogy of Amenophis III. and fol- 
lows with : " The principal consort Taia, 
living, the name of her father (is) Auaa. 
The name of her mother (is) Tuaa. She 
is the consort of the victorious king whose 
frontiers ( extend ) to the south as far as 
Ka ro (or, Karai, perhaps Soudan,) to the 
north as far as Naharina," i.e., Mesopota- 
mia. There are many other historical 
scarabs in this Museum but these have the 
longest and most important inscriptions. 



56 AMENOPHIS III. 



Another scarab of this Pharaoh is in 
the collection of the Rev. W. J. Loftie, of 
London, England. It is large, 2)% inches 
long by 2 5^ inches wide, it is made of 
steatite and glazed ; it tells : " The num- 
ber of fierce lions brought in by his 
majesty, and killed by him, from the begin- 
ning of his first (year) to the tenth year 
of his reign, were 102."* 

*An Essay of Scarabs, by W. J. Loftie, B.A., F.S.A. 
London, (125 copies printed,) pp. 37, 38. 



V. 

WHERE USUALLY FOUND AND THE MODE 
OF WEARING SCARABS BY THE EGYP- 
TIANS. BOOK OF THE DEAD. EGYPTIAN 
SCARABS FOUND IN MESOPOTAMIA. THE 
SCARAB IN CHRISTIANITY. 

THE small sized scarabs were usually 
incised with hieroglyphics and per- 
forated longitudinally ; they are generally 
found on the breasts of mummies next 
the skin or suspended from the neck, by 
a wire of gold or other metal, or a string 
going through them, or worn like a ring 
Stone on the forefinger of the left hand ; 
and sometimes, grasped inside of the 
closed left hand. The inscriptions on 
them usually run from right to left. One 



58 MODE OF WEARING SCARABS. 

method of wearing them by the living, a 
very ancient one, was by stringing them 
on a cord or a wire, so that they could be 
worn as a bracelet on the wrist, a necklace 
around the throat, or as a pendant to a 
necklace. The engraved base serving not 
only as an amulet but also as the private 
signet of the owner. Soldiers wore them 
suspended around the neck, as a talisman 
when going into battle and also to instil 
courage in them during the fray. But 
the most usual mode of mounting them 
by the living, was as a stone for a finger 
ring on a swivel, or a wire, passing through 
the longitudinal perforation and then 
curved into a ring shape ; this was usually 
worn on the forefinger of the left hand, 
as that finger was thought by the Egyp- 
tians, to contain a nerve leading directly 
to the heart ; the engraved part was 
turned next to the flesh. M. Mariette 
says, that the mummies of the Xlth 



SCARABS WITH EXTENDED WINGS. 59 

Dynasty nearly always have a scarab on 
the little finger of the left hand.* 

Sometimes they were made of baked 
clay or cut in steatite, with the head of a 
hawk, cow, ram, dog, cat, lion, or even of a 
man, and such have been found buried 
with the mummies. Those found on the 
breasts of mummies embalmed most care- 
fully and expensively, and in immediate 
contact with the flesh, have sometimes 
bodies of stone with extended wings, as 
if flying ; these wings sometimes having 
been made of metal, frequently of gold, 
and at other times of cut stone.f Those 
found made of stone with extended wings, 
also had the latter often made of lead or 
silver; when of blue pottery, the wings 
were generally made of the same material. 

On the lids of the outer cases of many 
coffins, especially of the finest ; the posi- 

* Cat. of the Museum of Boulak, p. 34. 
f Pettigrew, Hist, of Mummies, p. 220. 



6o SCARABS ON MUMMY CASES. 

tion over the breast of the mummy was 
occupied by a large winged scarabaeus, 
moulded apparently, of pasteboard or of 
successive layers of gummed linen, and 
then beautifully painted in colors. This 
was to act as the protector Khepra, of the 
ka or immaterial vitality of the saku or 
mummy. The Egyptians had a com- 
plicated psychology which we will refer 
to more fully hereafter. 

Those within the coverings were most 
probably put inside of the mummy wrap- 
pings to act as talisman, like the writing 
upon the linen wrappings, and the band- 
elettes inscribed with texts from the Book 
of the Dead, or, the Shait an Sensen, i.e., 
Book of the Breathings of Life, and as 
also were enclosed, copies of entire chap- 
ters and parts, of the Book of the Dead, 
written upon papyrus or linen; or inscribed 
on the large stone scarabs, which were 
put in the body of the corpse, to take the 



SCARABS AS TALISMAN, 6 1 

place of the heart, the last having been 
deposited with the lungs, in the jar of 
Tuamautef, one of the four Canopic jars. 
The idea being to drive away evil spirits, 
supposed to be injurious to the passage 
of the soul of the dead, upon its journey 
through the under-world to the new birth 
and power of transformation, in the eternal 
heaven of the Egyptians. 

There appears to have been two divi- 
sions of that eternal heaven, one called 
Aar and Aanrit, the place in which agri- 
cultural labors were performed, and the 
other Hotep, the place of repose. Both 
are mentioned in the Book of the Dead. 

Indeed some chapters of the Book of 
the Dead were only inscribed on the 
linen winding sheet of the mummy, and 
the texts of the CLIVth chapter were only 
recovered recently, upon the unrolling of 
the mummy of Tehuti-mes, or Thotmes, 
Ilird (1600 B.C.,) of the XVIIIth Dy- 



62 BOOK OF THE DEAD. 

nasty, the great warrior king of Egypt, 
found a few years past at Dayr-el-Baharee; 
inscribed upon his linen winding sheet. 
As the winding sheet was the only proper 
place for this text, and as it is unique, it 
likely would not ever have been known, 
if this Pharaoh's mummy had not been 
discovered unmutilated. 

The small scarabs were usually placed' 
upon the eyes or the breast, sometimes 
over the stomach. They were strung into 
a net to cover the corpse and were sewed 
on the wrappings. As many as three 
thousand have been found in one tomb. 

Egyptian scarabs were found by Mr. 
Layard, in his explorations on the banks 
of the Khabour in Mesopotamia, at Arban; 
and he gives plates of the same.* Three 
are of the reigns of the Egyptian kings 
Thotmes Ilird, and one of Amenophis 

* Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, etc., 
by Austen H. Layard, M.P. New York, 1853, p. 280 et seq. 



SCARABS IN MESOPOTAMIA. 63 

Illrd. They are mostly of steachist, and 
of the XVII Ith Dynasty. He found one 
of hard stone, an agate, engraved with an 
Assyrian emblem.* He also found at 
Nimrud ; cubes of bronze upon which 
were scarabs with outstretched wings, 
inlaid in gold,f and bronze bowls with 
conventional forms of the scarab, rather 
Phoenician than Egyptian, in the centre 
of the inside. J 

After the Christian era the influence 
of cult of the scarab was still felt. St. 
Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, calls Jesus: 
''The good Scarabseus, who rolled up 
before him the hitherto unshapen mud of 
our bodies." § St. Epiphanius has been 
quoted as saying of Christ: " He is the 
scarabseus of God," and indeed it appears 

* Ibid., p. 595. 

\Ibid., p. 196. 

Xlbid., p. 186. 

§ Works, Paris, 1686, Vol. I., col. 1528, No. 113. Egyp- 
tian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity, etc., by Samuel 
Sharpe. London, 1863, p. 3. 



64 CHRISTIAN SCARABS. 

likely that what may be called, Christian 
forms of the scarab, yet exist. One has 
been described as representing the cruci- 
fixion of Jesus ; it is white and the engrav- 
ing is in green, on the back are two palm 
branches ; many others have been found 
apparently engraved with the Latin 



*An Essay of Scarabs, by W. J. Loftie, B.A., F.S.A., 
pp. 58, 59. 



VI. 

THE POSITION OF THE SCARAB IN ANCIENT 
EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND THE BOOK OF 
THE DEAD. EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

ADVANCED INTELLECTUALITY OF EGYPT 
SIX THOUSAND YEARS AGO. DEITIES OF 
LIBRARIES AND LEARNING. ANCIENT 
LIBRARIANS AND BOOKS. THE DIVISION 
OF LEARNED MEN INTO DIFFERENT 
BRANCHES OF STUDY. THE STATEMENTS 
OF GREEK WRITERS ON EGYPTIAN 
THOUGHT NOT TO BE DEPENDED UPON. 
QUOTATIONS FROM THE BOOK OF THE 
DEAD ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE 
SCARAB^US DEITY. THE SYMBOLISM OF 
THE GREAT SPHINX. FURTHER QUOTA- 



66 SCARAB THE SYMBOL OF RESURRECTION. 

TIONS FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, 
ON THE SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARAB 
DEITY. 

AS I have already said : the larger 
L scarabs are usually found in the 
body of the mummy in place of the heart, 
which was always taken out of the corpse 
and placed in one of the visceral vases, that 
of Tuamautef. The scarab was a symbol 
of the re-birth, resurrection and the 
eternal life of the soul, pronounced pure 
at the psychostasia ; and we know from 
the Book of the Dead, that at the moment 
of resurrection, in analogy to the begin- 
ning of terrestrial life, it was the heart 
that was asserted to be given to the dead 
so as to receive the first vitality of the 
second birth, it was through the heart that 
the mummy would revive, thence the in- 
scribed scarab was placed in the mummy 
in the place formerly occupied by its heart 



BOOK OF THE DEAD. 6^ 

when in terrestrial life. Sometimes the 
representation of a human heart was en- 
graved on the scarabseus. The small 
scarabs are not often found inside of the 
mummy. But frequently large stone 
scarabs have been found in it in the place 
of the heart, on which, incised in very small 
characters, are portions of the Book of the 
Dead. Those usually inscribed are, the 
XXXth chapter or those parts of the 
LXIVth, line 34, or of the XXVIIth chap- 
ters, which relate to the heart of a man. 
They begin usually with the formula : 
" My heart which comes from my mother, 
my heart which is necessary for my trans- 
formations," etc. They are, following the 
commands in the Book of the Dead, 
frequently set in gold, sometimes in bronze, 
and sometimes are incised with the shape 
of the hieroglyph for the heart. 

At some very remote period, so remote 
that we cannot even surmise its date, the 



68 EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 

scarabaeus symbol was considered as em- 
bodying not only the idea of the creator 
but also, the idea of the life beyond the 
grave in eternal futurity. Some scholars 
assert that the Egyptians rejected every 
abstraction and did not have any philos- 
ophy. This I do not and cannot believe 
from my investigations of their learning, 
but I do think, that we have not yet 
grasped nor understood that philosophy 
in its fullness, from the few remnants of 
it which have reached our day. The 
oldest texts and monuments show, a high 
condition of culture and thought as well 
as artistic feeling ; the unknown deity was 
idealized and never represented to the 
eye on the monuments of early times; 
the Great Sphinx, itself a philosophical 
abstraction, was made long before the his- 
torical period ; and the Book of the Dead, 
shows beneath its pages, a hidden re- 
ligious metaphysical philosophy not yet 



SECRET TRADITION. 69 

unraveled. This was, likely, secretly 
taught by word of mouth as Qabbalah 
or Oral Tradition to the initiates, and was 
never put into writing. Some of these 
ideas we have just grasped, for instance, 
we now have some knowledge of the 
Egyptian divisions of the spiritual or im- 
material part of man, of his psychology, 
and upon studying these divisions one can 
readily imagine, a secret religious philoso- 
phy accompanying those separations of 
the spiritual in man. We are also ob- 
taining some knowledge, of their idea of 
God and of their kosmology and kosmo- 
gony. 

Six thousand years ago Egypt had at- 
tained great advancement. " Its religion 
was established. It possessed a language 
and writing. Art under the IVth and Vth 
Dynasties had reached a height which the 
following Dynasties * never surpassed. 

* Unless it be the Xllth. Myer. 



70 ARCHAIC INTELLECTUALITY. 

It had an especially complicated adminis- 
tration, the result of many years. The 
Egyptians had civil grades and religious 
grades, bishops as well as prefects. Regis- 
tration of land surveys existed. The 
pharaoh had his organized court, and a 
large number of functionaries, powerfully 
and wisely arranged, gravitated around 
him. Literature was honored and books 
were composed on morals, some of which 
have reached our day. This was under 
the Ancient Empire during which existed 
the builders of the Pyramids."* The 
deities of literature and of libraries already 
existed, they were Thoth, the Greek 
Hermes; Atmu, of Thebes ; Ma or Maat, 
goddess of the harmony of the entire uni- 
verse, or its law of existence, and of right- 
eousness ; Pacht, the mistress of thoughts ; 
Safekh, goddess of books, who presided 

* La Galerie de V £,gypte Ancienne, etc., by Aug. Ed, 
Mariette-Bey. Paris, 1878, pp. 46, 47. 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LIBRARIES. 7 1 

over the foundations of monuments and 
who was venerated at Memphis as early 
as the IVth Dynasty; Selk, who was also 
the goddess of libraries. 

"In one of the tombs at Gizeh, a 
great functionary of the first period of 
the Vlth Dynasty {circa 3300 B.C.,) takes 
the title of: 'Governor of the House of 
Books.' This simple mention incidentally 
occurring between two titles, more exalted, 
would suffice, in the absence of others, to 
show us the extraordinary development 
which had been reached in the civilization 
of Egypt at that time. Not only had 
that people a literature, but that literature 
was sufficiently large to fill libraries ; and 
its importance was so great, that one of 
the functionaries of the court was espe- 
cially attached to the care and preser- 
vation of the royal library. He had, 
without doubt, in his keeping with the 
contemporaneous works, the books written 



72 ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BOOKS. 

under the first Dynasties, books of the 
time of Mena and perhaps of kings 
anterior to Mena. The works in the 
library would be composed of religious 
works ; chapters of the Book of the Dead, 
copied after authentic texts preserved in 
the Temples ; scientific treatises on geom- 
etry, medicine and astronomy; historic 
books in which were preserved the sayings 
and doings of the ancient kings, together 
with the number of the years of their 
lives and the exact duration of their 
reigns ; manuals of philosophy and practi- 
cal morals and perhaps some romances," 
etc.* 

The learned of that ancient people 
followed special lines of study and 
thought. There was a division of them 
known as the Herseskta, or Teachers of 
Mysteries. These were subdivided, 

* Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de I' Orietii, by G. Mas- 
pero. Paris, 1886, p. 68 et seq. 



TEACHERS OF THE MYSTERIES. 73 

among other divisions into : " The Mys- 
tery Teachers of Heaven," or, the astron- 
omers and astrologers ; " The Mystery 
Teachers of All Lands," or, the geog- 
raphers and those who studied other 
peoples and countries; "The Mystery 
Teachers of the Depth," likely, the 
possessors of a knowledge of minerals, 
mining, varieties of rocks, etc.; "Mystery 
Teachers of the Secret Word," doubtless 
those interested in abstract thought, re- 
ligious metaphysics and philosophy ; 
"Mystery Teachers of the Sacred Lan- 
guage," men who devoted themselves to 
grammar and the form of writing ; "Mys- 
tery Teachers of Pharaoh, or, * of all the 
commands of Pharaoh,'" wise men, likely 
private scribes and secretaries of the king; 
" Mystery Teachers who examine Words," 
likely learned men who sat as judges to 
hear complaints, and sift the opposing 
statements of litigants and witnesses. 



74 WRITERS ON EGYPTIAN THOUGHT. 

The learned writers known as scribes 
were also divided into many branches.* 

We cannot accept the statements of 
most of the Greek authors upon this sub- 
ject, for the study of the last few years of 
the Ancient Egyptian papyri and other re- 
mains, shows that they either did not know 
or they willfully misrepresented, Egyptian 
abstract thought ; about the only works, 
outside of the papyri and the monuments, 
from which we can gather as to it with any 
sureness, meagre details ; are the writings 
attributed to Hermes Trismegistos ; the 
Osiris and Isis, of Plutarch ; the work as- 
cribed to Horapollon, and the book of 
lamblichus, entitled : A Treatise on the 

*Brugsch-Bey in, Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 
1 891, pp. 25, 26. As to the knowledge of the Ancient 
Egyptians ; Comp. Egyptian Science from the Monuments 
and Ancient Books, treated as a general introduction to the 
History of Science, by N. E. Johnson, B.A., etc. London, 
(1891?) Ten Years Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, etc. London, 1892, pub. by The Religious 
Tract Society. 



GREEK AUTHORS INCORRECT. 75 

Mysteries. The Greek writers upon 
Ancient Egypt, Herodotus, Diodorus 
Siculus, Strabo,Thales, Plato, Pythagoras, 
Solon, and others, of less note ; give but 
little assistance, indeed in many cases 
their statements are misleading. It is a 
question yet to be solved, as to how much 
of the foundations of the philosophy of 
Pythagoras, Plato, Solon and other Greek 
writers, were obtained from the learned 
men of Egypt or their writings.* 

Chapter XXX. of the Per-em-hru, or, 
Book of the Dead, has frequently in the 
papyrus copies, a picture of the soul of the 
dead in adoration before a scarabseus set 
upright upon a support. This chapter 
is entitled : "Chapter of not allowing the 
heart of a man to have opposition made 
to it in the divine inferior region." It says 

*Comp. La Morale Egyptienne, etc., by E. Amelineau. 
Paris, 1892. Introd. pp. LXXXII. et seq., XX. etseq. Ritual 
Fune'raire de Pamonth, by M. Eugene Revillout. Paris, 
i88q. 



76 SCARAB PLACED IN MUMMY. 

towards the end : " This chapter is to be 
saidoverascarabaeus of hard stone, formed 
and set in gold, which should be placed in 
the breast of the man, after the opening 
of the mouth has been made and the head 
anointed with oil ; then the following 
words shall be said over him in right 
of a magical charm : * My heart which 
comes to me from my mother, my heart 
which is necessary to me for my transfor- 
mations.'" See, Appendix A. 

The whole of this chapter was fre- 
quently engraved upon the large scarabs, 
which were placed in the breasts of the 
mummies in place of the heart. 

The LXIVth chapter of the Book of 
the Dead, is one of the oldest of the entire 
collection and line 34 et seq., uses the 
same language as to the heart, and says : 
"Put it on a scarabaeus of hard stone set 
in gold, in the breast of the mummy, 
having engraved on it : ' My heart is my 



FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. 77 

mother,' " etc. This chapter is fuller than 
the other just cited. 

The CLXIIIrd chapter, lines 9, 10, 
says: "O Amen bull-scarabseus, master 
of the eyes : 'Terrible with the pupil of the 
eye ' is thy name. The Osiris * * * 
(here the name of the deceased was in- 
serted,) is the emanation of thy two eyes." 
That is, Amen is here invoked as the bull- 
symbol of generation and also as the 
scarabaeus, that is, as the creator who 
has engendered himself. 

Chapter CLXV. of the same book, 
has as a vignette or picture : The god 
Khem, ithyphallic, with the body of a 
scarab, etc., line 11 reads: " I do all thy 
words. Saying (them) over the image of 
the god raising the arm, having the double 
plume upon his head, the legs separated 
and the body of the scarabaeus." 

The rising sun or Horus, in whose 
arms it was asserted, the dead arose into 



78 FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. 

the Upper life, was represented by the 
scarabseus under the name of Khepra, 
Khepera, or Khepri, this name among its 
other meanings signifying : " The itself 
transforming," and this is hieroglyphically 
written by the use of the scarabaeus. 
The body of Khepera as a deity is sur- 
mounted in some of the representations, 
by a scarab in place of a human head. 

In chapter XXIV. of the Book of the 
Dead, we read : " Khepra transforms 
itself, (or, gives itself a form to itself,) on 
high, from the thigh of its mother." This 
is more fully developed in a papyrus in 
the Louvre which reads : " The majesty 
of this great god attains that reign ( the 
twelfth division of the subterranean world, 
responding to the twelfth hour of the 
night,) which is the end of absolute dark- 
ness. The birth of this great god, when 
it became Khepra, took place in that 
region * ♦ * j|- ^g^t out from the 



OF KHEPRA. 79 



inferior region. It joined the boat mad. 
It raised itself above the thighs of Nut." 

"O Khepra who created itself on high, 
from the thigh of its mother, i.e., Nu, or 
Nut." * 

Nut was the goddess personifying the 
vault of heaven, the sky, and the space, in 
which the sun was supposed to have been 
born. The scarab it must be remembered 
was in the Egyptian thought, an andro- 
gyne. 

In a papyrus now in Turin, Italy, we 
may read : " I am Khepera, the morning ; 
Ra, the midday; Tum, the evening." It 
is said of Khepra as of Horus, that it pro- 
duced the Ma, i.e., the law or harmony 
which uphold the universe, and it is 

merged with a form of Horus, under the 

«?■■ 

* Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed {exemplaire hieroglyphique du 
Livre des Morts,)reproduit, etc., par Theodule D&vinsiavec la 
traductioji du texte par Paul Pierret conservateur-adjoint du 
Mus'ee Egyptian du Louvre, Paris, 1872, pi. III., col. 13, 
14, P- 3- 



8o OF KHEPRA. 



name of: " Harmakhis-Kheprawho gives 
itself its form." One of the parts played 
by Khepra in Ancient Egyptian thought, 
is condensed in that figure which we find 
on the top of some of the Osirian naos's 
or arks, the scarab in the middle of the 
disk emerging from the horizon. 

The perpetuity of the transformations 
or the power to become, whenever it 
pleased, the form it desired ; was every- 
where recalled to the mind of the people 
of Ancient Egypt, by the symbolic figure 
of the scarab, the hieroglyph of the words : 
To become, to be, to be existing, as also 
creator, an amulet of power above all 
others. " Khepra in its bark is Har-em- 
Khu (or, Harmakhis) himself," (chapter 
XVII. Book of the Dead, line 79.) The 
latter is the sun re-born every day at sun- 
rise in the East under the name of Horus, 
it is : " Horus in the horizon," the con- 
queror of darkness. The scarab as Tum- 



THE GREAT SPHINX. 8l 

Ra-Khepra is the, "illuminator of the 
double earth at its going out of the under- 
world, great god, and master of the Ma .•" 
that is, of the Harmony and Law, whereby 
the universe came into being and exists. 

The similarity attached to the idea in 
the symbolism of the sphinx, causes the 
close student of Egyptology, to see, that 
the scarab and the sphinx represent similar 
ideas. The Great Sphinx of Gizeh near 
the Great Pyramids, is an image of Ra- 
Harmakhis or, " Horus in the two hori- 
zons," (the rising and the setting sun ;) 
one of the names of the sphinx is seshep 
(i.e., to make the light.) The sphinx is 
said to be, an emblem of energy and force 
united to intellect, it is one of the very 
earliest of the Ancient Egyptian emblems, 
that of Gizeh was old and needing repairs 
when the Pyramids were being built ; 
{circa 3733 B.C.) That abstraction does 
not appear to me, to be beyond the phi- 



82 THE GREAT SPHINX, 

losophy of the archaic Egyptians. The 
head of the Great Sphinx signified the 
Khu, or intellectual part of the soul, in 
their psychology; and the lion-shaped 
body, signified force, vitality or energy, the 
life principle ox Ka^^ 

The promise of the resurrection of 
the soul was symbolized, by the Great 
Sphinx of Gizeh, old at the beginning of 
the Ancient Ei^ipire ; by the PhcEnix, and 
by the Scarabj the antiquity of the sym- 
bolism of which no Egyptologist has 
yet fathomed. We have it set forth in 
writing on the inscriptions of the earliest 
Dynasties.f 

* Comp. as to the Sphinx, Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by 
Heinrich Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, pp. 37, 38, and es- 
pecially p. 199 et seq. Also G. Maspero in his, Histoire 
Anciemte des Peuples de I ' Orient. Paris, 1886, pp. 28, 50, 
64, 209. 

f Comp. Recherches sur les nionum. qu'onpeut attribuer 
aux six premieres Dynasties de Manet/ton, etc., by M. Le 
vicomte Emmanuel de Rouge. Paris, Imp. Imper., 1866. 
Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la Philol. et a V Arch. Egypt, 
et Assyri, edited by Maspero, Vol. III. and IV., 1882 et seq. 



THE GREAT SPHINX. 83 

On a stele found between the paws of 
the Great Sphinx of Gizeh is : " The 
majesty of this beautiful god speaks by 
its own mouth, as a father speaks to his 
child, saying : Look to me, let thine eye 
rest on me, my son Thutmes ! I, thy 
father, Harmakhu-Khepra-Ra-Tum, I 
give thee the kingdom," This monarch 
was Thutmes IVth (1533 b.c.)* 

In the interior of the pyramid of Mer- 
en-Ra (or Mirinri 1st,) 3200 B.C., was in- 
scribed on the walls : "And they install- 
ing this Mihtiwisaoiif Mirini upon their 
thrones at the head of the divine Nine, 
mistress of Ra, it who has its dwelling 
fixed, because they cause that Miktimsaouf 
Mirini may be as Ra, in its name of the 

*Comp. Egypt Under the Pharaohs, etc., by Heinrich 
Brugsch-Bey. London, i8gi, p. igg ^2* j'^^. The Nile. Notes 
for Travellers in Egypt by E. A. Wallis Budge. Litt, D., 
F.S.A. London, 1892, pp. 194-5. Hist, of the Egyptian 
Relig., by Dr. C. P. Tiele, trans, by James Ballingal. Boston, 
1882, p. 81 et seq. 



84 INSCRIPTION, PERIOD OF MER-EN-RA. 

ScarabcsuSy and thou hast entered as to 
thyself as Ra," etc.* 

" Salutation to thee Tumu,f salutation 
to thee, Scarabseus-god, who art thyself; 
thou who liftest up, in that holding thy 
name of lifter up ('from the earth,' 'the 
stairway,' or 'stairs,') and who art 
(Khopiru) in this, holding the name of 
the Scarabaeus-god ( Khopiru ) ! Salu- 
tation to thee Eye of Horus, whom it has 
furnished with its two creating hands 
(Tumui,)" etc. J 

Chapter XVII., line 75, of the Book 

* Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la Philol. et a V Arch. 
JEgypt., etc., publie de sous la direction de G. Maspero, Vol. 
XI., fas. I, pp. 2, 3. See also as to mention of Tumu, the 
Scarabseus, in the pyramid of Pepi II. (Nefer-ka-Ra) 3166 
B.C. /^/^., "Vol. XII., pp. 144, 153. 

f Tumu or Tmu was also called Hor-em-khu, i.e., Horus 
on the horizon, or, the rising sun, he was the deity Harmakhis 
of the Greeks ; his symbol, as before mentioned, was the 
Great Sphinx. Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Brugsch-Bey. 
London, 1891, pp. 199, 201. As to Tum, see Supra. 

XRectieil, etc., before cited. Vol. XII., p. 160 et seq., 189, 
190. Pyramid of Pepi II. See also the Book of the Dead, 
Turin Mss. ch. CXLI., A. 6 ; Ibid., ch. XVII. beginning; 
Ibid., ch. LXXIX., 1. i ; Ibid., ch. LXXVIII., 1. 12. 



OF KHEPRA. 85 



of the Dead, reads: "O Khepra in its 
boat ! the society of the gods is its body, 
in other words, it is Eternity." 

Chapter XXIV., lines i, 2, say: "I 
am Khepra who gives to itself a form 
on high, from the thigh of its mother, 
making a wolf-dog, for those who are in 
the celestial abyss, and the phoenix, for 
those who are among the divine chiefs." 
That is, as Harmakhis. 

Chapter XV., lines 3, 4, read: "Salu- 
tation to thee, Harmakhis-Khepra who to 
itself gives a form to itself! Splendid 
is thy rising in the horizon, illuminating 
the double earth with thy rays." The 
same chapter, line 47, reads : " Khepra, 
father of the gods! He (the defunct) 
has never any more injury to fear, thanks 
to that deliverance." 

Chapter CXXXIV., line 2, says : 
" Homage to Khepra in its boat who 
every day overthrows Apap." Comp., 



86 KHEPRA DEFEATS THE EVIL ONE. 

chapter CXXX., line 21, XLL, line 2. 
Apap was the evil serpent, the executioner 
of the gods, that is, the principal evil one ; 
and Khepra, the scarabseus deity, over- 
throws the principal evil one, every day, 
according to this text. 

"The Osiris * * * (name of the 
defunct was inserted in this blank,) is 
considered as a lord of eternity, he is 
considered as Khepra, he is lord of the 
diadem, he is in the eye of the sun," etc., 
says chapter XLII., lines 12, 13 ^^ seg'. 

And in chapter XVII., which is one of 
the oldest chapters of the Per-em-hru, 
lines 76, "]"], 78, is; "O Khepra in thy 
boat! (i.e., as Harmakhis) the body of 
the gods is even thy body, or so to say, 
it is Eternity. Save Osiris * * * 
from those watching judges (i.e., Isis 
and Nephthys,) to whom the master of 
spells has entrusted, at his pleasure, the 
watching of his enemies — whom the 



PUNISHMENT IN THE UNDER-WORLD. 87 

executioner will strike — and from whose 
observation none escape. Let me not fall 
under their sword ; let me not go into 
their place of torture; let me not remain 
supplicating in their abodes ; let me not 
come into their place for execution ; 
let me not sit down in their boilers ; let 
me not do those things which are done by 
those whom the gods detest," etc. 

Further according to the Book of the 
Dead, the soul of the dead man, says: 
" I fly among those of the divine essence, 
I become in it, Khepra * * * I am 
that, which is in the bosom of the gods." 
(Chapter LXXXIII., lines i, 2.) 

Another text reads : " O it who 
establishes the mysteries which are in me, 
produce the transformations as Khepra, 
going out of the condition of the disk so 
as to give light ( or, to enlighten. ) " 
Chapter LXIV., line 16. (Comp. also 
chapter XCIII.) 



88 BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION. 

Another text says : " I give vigor to 
the murdering sword which is in the hand 
of Khepra against the rebels." (Chapter 
XCV, line 3.) 

Khepra is also called, Tum-Khepra. 
(Chapter CXLL, hne 6.) 

Reaching the eternal abode, the soul, 
says : "I am intact, intact as my father 
Osiris-Khepra, of whom the image is, the 
man whose body is not decomposed." 
(Chapter CLIV., lines i, 2.) 

On articles of furniture, on toys, on 
the coffins of mummies, on papyri and 
linen and other monuments, the scarabseus 
appears and sets off in a strong light, the 
Egyptian belief in the resurrection and 
re-birth of the pious dead. The very idea 
of the transformation is shown, by the 
hieroglyph of the scarab for the word 
Kheper, i.e., to be, to become, to raise up. 
One of the most urgent prayers to be 
found in many places, in the Book of the 



RE-BIRTH OF THE DEAD. 89 

Dead as made by the deceased, is, that 
he may go out of the under-world to the 
higher regions of Hght, and have power 
to "go forth as a living soul, to take all 
the forms which may please him." Chabas 
says as to this: "We know that such 
was the principal beatitude of the elect 
in the Egyptian heaven ; it allowed the 
faculty of transformation into all the 
universe under the form wished for." 
The god Khepra with folding wings sym- 
bolized these metamorphoses. 

It figures continually in the sepulchral 
paintings on the walls of the hypogea of 
Thebes, and it announces the second birth 
of the soul to the future eternal life. Some 
figures have the scarab over the head, 
sometimes in place of the head. In the 
Great Temple at Edfu a scarab has been 
found portrayed with two heads, one of a 
ram, the symbol of Amen, or Ammon ; 
the hidden or mysterious highest deity of 



go RE-BIRTH OF THE DEAD. 

the priesthood especially of Thebes ; the 
other of a hawk, the symbol of Horus, 
holding in its claws a symbol of the 
universe.* It may symbolize by this form, 
the rising sun and the coming of the 
Spring sun of the vernal equinox in the 
zodiacal sign of the ram, but more likely 
has a much deeper religious meaning.f 
Represented with the head and legs of a 
man the scarab was an emblem of Ptah. 

* Religions de V Antiquity, etc., by J. D. Guigniaut, 
founded on the German work of Dr. Fred. Creuzer. Paris, 
1825, Vol. I., part 2, pi. XLVIII., 187b. Compare the 
other curious figfures of the scarabseus in this volume, also p. 
948 et seq. 

f Comp. Wilkinson, Manners, etc., of the Ancient Egyp- 
tians, 2nd series. London, 1841, Vol. II., p. 260, Vol. I., 
pp. 250, 256. 



VII. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE HEART IN THE AN- 
CIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. IMMOR- 
TALITY OF THE SOUL ACCORDING TO 
THAT RELIGION. SYMBOLISM OF THE 
SCARAB IN THEIR DOCTRINE OF SUCH 
IMMORTALITY. NO THING IN THIS UNI- 
VERSE ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED, ONLY 
CHANGED. THE IDEA OF METEMPSY- 
CHOSIS IN ANCIENT EGYPT. ELEVATED 
IDEAS AS TO THE DEITY. HYMN TO 
AMMON-RA CITED. QUOTATIONS AS TO 
EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY, EVOLUTION OF 
THE UNIVERSE AND KOSMOGONY. OF 
KHEPRA AND OF TUM OR ATMU. EGYP- 
TIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS DIVISIONS. 

THE human heart, the first life principle 
of human existence and regenera- 
tion, the first apparent individuality of 
embryonic human life ; was symbolized, 



92 PRESERVATION OF THE HEART. 

in the Per-em-Hru, i.e., the Book of the 
Dead, by Khepra, the scarabaeus deity ; 
this is one reason why the texts ( chapters 
XXX. and XXVIL, see also LXIV.,) 
which related to the heart, were those 
usually inscribed on'the funeral scarabsei, 
and consecrated to the preservation of 
I the heart of the dead. The condition of 
death was described by the Egyptian ex- 
pression : " The one whose heart does not 
beat." The resurrection or re-birth from 
the dead only began, according to the 
Egyptian idea, when this organ, so essen- 
tial and necessary to all animal life, was 
returned to the deceased Ba, i.e., respon- 
sible soul, by the decree of Osiris and the 
judges of the dead, which Thoth registers: 
" To him is accorded that his heart may 
be in its place." Indeed most of the texts 
of the Per-em-Hru, as we have seen, are 
dedicated to the preservation of the heart 
of the dead one. The philosophic student 



SCARAB THE SYMBOL OF RESURRECTION. 93 

can therefore from this, at once see, the 
great value of the scarabseus symbol to 
the whole religious thought-world of An- 
cient Egypt. It was the symbol, when 
returned to the dead, of the regenerated 
and resurrected life of the dead one to the 
heavenly regions of the blessed for all 
eternity, to the second birth in the regions 
of eternal rest and happiness. 

Taking as a model the daily course of 
the sun, which rising in the morning as 
Horus ; reaching the zenith at noon as Ra ; 
setting in the evening, in the regions of 
darkness as Tum ; and absent during the 
night and until the morrow as Osiris ; 
upon which, victorious over the chaotic 
darkness, it arose in triumph again as 
Horus ; the birth and journey of man on 
earth, was considered by the Ancient 
Egyptians as similar to the solar journey ; 
and death, the end of that journey, was 
assimilated to the course of the sun when 



94 DEAD RE-BORN TO IMMORTALITY. 

at night it was, according to their astro- 
nomical knowledge, supposed to be in the 
Lower Regions or Underworld, the abode 
of Osiris. When he died, the Egyptian be- 
came as Osiris, "the nocturnal sun ;" resur- 
rected, he became Horus, the new-born and 
rising sun ; in midday, he was Ra. Horus 
was: " The Old One who rejuvenated him- 
self." Such are-birth of the dead to immor- 
tality, was the recompense promised by the 
Egyptian religion, to the soul of the man 
pious and good during this life, but the 
wicked were to be tortured, transformed 
into lower forms, or annihilated.* Matter, 
according to it, does not perish but only 
changes and the earth itself, was deified 
as Seb, Isis, Tanen, and Ptah-Tatunen. 

What then did matter become, it was 
transformed, the deities were transformed. 
Matter was transformed, — this is explained 

*Comp. Hist, of the Egypt. Relig., by Dr. C. P. Tiele. 
London, 1892, pp. 89, 127, 139. 



MATTER ONLY TRANSFORMED. 95 

to US through the symbolism of the scarab, 
the hieroglyph of the word Kheper, i.e., 
*'to be," "to exist," "to become," "to 
create," " to emanate ;" of which, as I have 
said, the Great Sphinx is the symbol, and 
has therefore the philosophical value of 
creator and created.* God and His uni- 
verse, existence and change or transforma- 
tion, death and dissolution, all which were 
only considered as regeneration and re- 
birth in another form. Thence becomes 
apparent to us, the great value and im- 
portance to the Egyptian people of the 
symbolism of the scarab, it was, to them, 
the emblematic synthesis of their religion 
as to-day to Christians, the Latin or the 
Greek cross, is the emblematic synthesis of 
Latin or Greek Christianity. The phil- 
osophic Egyptian, thought, the atoms and 
molecules of all bodies and of all matter, 

*Most likely the Eg3T)tian idea was " to emanate " more 
than "to create." 



g6 DEATH AND PERSONALITY. 

were never destroyed or lost, they were 
always in motion but were only trans- 
formed and changed, by death or the 
dissolution of forms. Death on this earth 
did not destroy the personality of the 
human being, that continued beyond death 
on our earth, and as to those who had been 
good and pious during their life here, their 
personality continued eternally ; but the 
punishment of the wicked was, the anni- 
hilation of that personality or an im- 
mobility which was almost the same. The 
work entitled, Hermes Trismegistos, con- 
tains a resume of that idea, saying, among 
other things : " What was composed is 
divided. That division is not Death, it is 
the analysis of a combination ; but the aim 
of that analysis is not destruction, it is the 
renewment. What is in effect the energy 
of life ? Is it not movement ? What then 
is there in this world, immovable ? " * 

* Louis Menard's edition. Paris, 1867, p. 89. 



IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 97 

The everlasting interchange of life and 
death, flows throughout all the religious 
philosophy of the Ancient Egyptians ; 
basing itself on the continual return of 
day from night and of day to night, and 
upon the apparent course of the sun, they 
seem to have formulated the idea of the 
immortality of the soul of man after death. 

Herodotus tells us,* that the Egyp- 
tians believed, that the soul of the de- 
parted passed into an animal, and after 
having gone through all the ranks of the 
animal world, was at the end of three 
thousand years reunited to the human 
body ; but from the remains of the Egyp- 
tian religion we have to-day, next to 
nothing has been found that will confirm 
this statement, but much that shows the 
Greek authors were frequently in error. 
In the realm of the dead, according to 
the texts of the Book of the Dead, 

*Book II., ch. 123. 



98 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

(chapter LXXXIX. and other places,) 
the responsible soul or Ba of the deceased, 
may become a sparrow-hawk, an adder, a 
crocodile-headed being, etc., but only to 
deceive its demon enemies ; * not until 
after this, is the Khu, the intellectual soul, 
which accompanies the Ba, which is rep- 
resented under the symbolized form of a 
sparrow-hawk with a human head, reunit- 
ed to the Ba. This however all occurs, 
not on earth, but in the realms of the 
dead. The Ancient Egyptian believed, 
that as the setting of the sun was an 
actual separation of the body and soul of 
the sun-god ; and its rising, a reunion of 
the two ; so it happened to the future of 
the spiritual of man, and that after man's 
death on this earth, his spirit, as did that 
of the sun-god ; would arise again to life, 
but it would be to a life of immortality in 
a higher sphere. I am inclined also to 

*Hist. of the Egypt. Relig., by C. P. Tide, pp. 47, 71. 



THE PROTOTYPIC WORLD, 99 

think, that they believed the spiritual 
body of the new-born child came down 
from the sun-disk or from some very 
exalted sphere.* 

The following quotations from Eu- 
gene Grebaut's translation in French, of 
the Hymn to Ammon-Ra, are important 
for an understanding of the positions of 
Khepra and of Tum during the Theban 
Dynasties. 

" Hail to thee Ra, lord of the maat, 
(the) mysterious in his shrine. Master 
(i.e., father) of the gods, Khepra in its 
boat, (it) sending forth the word (i.e., the 
creative word,) the gods came into exist- 
ence. Hail god Tum, maker of intelligent 
beings, who determines their manner of 

*Comp. Hist, of the Egypt. Relig., by C. P. Tiele. 
London, 1890, p. 127. The Book of the Dead. Fac-simile 
of the Papyrus of Ani, etc., notes by P. Le Page Renouf. 
London, 1890, p. 16, note. See also supra reference to the 
Mesxen. A similar idea is in the Zohar, compare Qabbalah, 
etc., by Isaac Myer. Philadelphia, 1888, pp. 397, 388, 389, 
108 et seq., 190, 196, 418, and many other places. 



OF KHEPRA. 



existence, artisan of their existences ; (and 
who) distinguishes (their) colors, one from 
the other."* "Author of humanity, 
making the form of all things to become 
(or, former who produced every thing ; ) 
it is in thy name of Tum-Khepra."f 
** Khepra is father of the gods and the 
producer of the maatT % 

The deities go out of the mouth of 
their father Khepra, and are nourished by 
the maat, i.e., the Harmony or Law of the 
universe ; § men go out of its eyes, that is 
from the light of the deity, and it is this 
light which vivifies the entire universe. 
The Hymn says: "O Form, one, pro- 

* Hy7}ine ci, Am?non-Ra des papyrus ^gyptiens du Mus^e 
de Boulaq, traduit et commente, by Eugene Grebaut, etc. 
Paris, 1874, p. II. 

\Ibid., p. 28. See also, pp. 115, 120-122, 295. 

Xlbid., pp. 112, 115. 

§ As to the meaning of the important word inaat, see. 
Religion of Ancient Egypt, by P. Le Page Renouf — Hibbert 
Lectures for 1879. New York, pp. 73 et seq.\ 123 et seq. 
Hytnne a Amnion- Ra, last before cited, notes p. no et 
seq. 



HYMN TO AMMON-RA. 



ducing all things, the one, who art Alone ; 
producing existences ! Men come forth 
from Its two eyes, the gods come into 
existence from Its Word. Author of the 
green pastures, which nourish the cattle, 
and of the nutritious plants for the use of 
mankind. It who maketh that fishes live 
in the rivers and the winged fowl in the 
air; who giveth the breath of life to (the 
germ) in the egg. It maketh to live 
birds of all species, and likewise the in- 
sects which creep and also those which 
fly. It maketh provision for the rats in 
their holes, and nourisheth the birds that 
are on the trees. Hail to Thee, O Author 
of the totality of all forms. The one 
who art alone, yet numberless through 
Thy extended arms : watching over all 
humanity when it sleeps, seeking the 
good of Its creatures."* I have used the 
neuter It and not He, the Egyptian idea 

*Ifymne a Ammon-Ra, p. l6 et seq. 



I02 SUPREME DEITY AN ANDROGENE. 

of the highest deity was, that it was 
androgenic not masculine. Although it 
would seem that this Hymn, of which I 
have cited but a small portion, applied to 
Ammon-Ra, yet it expressly says, that: 
Its name is also Tum (or, Atmu, )- 
Khepra.* 

Another text reads : "O Bull of the 
western region f concealed in the con- 
cealed region (i.e., Amenti or the Under- 
world) from whom emanates all the gods 
(and all) the goddesses who are with him ! 
The Osiris, the Hathor * * * (the 
name of the dead was inserted here) the 
justified (or, triumphant,) comes towards 
thee; the becoming which is in the be- 
coming of all things when they become. J 
Powerful lords, beneficent, divine, judg- 

* Ibid., pp. 27, 28. 

f Comp. Hynine a Ammon-Ra, by E. Grebaut, pp. 3, 4, 
and notes to same, p. 39 et seq. 

X Or, "the changing which is in the changing of all things 
when they change." 



THE PROTOTYPES. I03 

ing the speech (words) of the Inhabitants 
of the countries ; lords of Truth ! * Hail to 
thee ! gods, essence of the essences with- 
out their bodies, ruling the generations of 
Ta-nen (i.e., of this earth) and the births 
(begettings) in the temple of Mesxen^ 
(they raise the generations?) from the 
first essence of the divine essences, third 
greatness above the father of their fathers ; 
invoking the soul from its Almightiness 
when are produced its Desires (Will;) 
adoring their Father in his glorifications ; 
divine Prototypes of the Types of all that 
exists, Fathers and Mothers of the solar 
disk, Forms, Great i\ncients. Divine 
Essences, first from Atum (i.e., chaos,) 
emanating humanity ; causing to emerge 
the forms of all forms ; lords of the divine 
sustenance ; homage to thee ! Lords from 

* That is : " Lords of niaat" i.e., of the harmony of the 
universe. 

f Place of the soul's birth. This refers to the upper 
prototypic world. The same idea is in the Zohar. 



I04 IDEAS AS TO EVOLUTION. 

everlasting, possessing eternity," etc. * 
"All that is done and said upon earth has 
its source in the heights, from whence the 
essences are dispensed to us with measure 
and equilibrium ; and there is not any- 
thing, which does not emanate from on 
high and which does not return thereto. "f 
The verb Kheper usually translated 
'* to be," "to exist," "to become," also has 
the meaning of " to roll " or " revolve." 
The sun apparently rolled or revolved 
around the earth. In the British Muse- 
um, in a hieratic papyrus (No. lo, i88,) 
Khepera is identified with the deity Neb- 
er'-ter, and the latter says, in it : — " I am 
He ( It ?) who evolved Himself ( Itself?) 
under the form of the god Khepera. I, 

* Catalogue des Manuscrits Agyptiens, etc., au Musde 
Agypt. du Louvre, par Feu Theodule DevMa. Paris, 1881, 
No. 3283 ; pp. 143, 144. Comp. Hermh Trismigiste, par 
Louis Menard, second ed. Paris, 1867, pp. 188, 190, 117 
et seq. ; 147. 

\ Hermh Trism^gisie, edition last cited, p. 218. 



, EVOLUTION OF THE ITNIVERSE. 105 

the evolver of evolutions, evolved Myself, 
the evolver of all evolutions, after a mul- 
titude of evolutions and developments 
which came forth from My mouth.* There 
was not any heaven, earth was not, ani- 
mals which move upon the earth and 
reptiles existed not in that place. I con- 
structed their forms out of the inert mass 
of watery matter. I did not find any 
place upon which I could stand. By the 
power which was in My Will I laid the 
foundation ( of things ) in the form of the 
god Shu f and I created ( emanated?) for 
them every attribute which they have. I 
alone existed, for I had not, as yet, made 
Shu emanate from Me, and I had not 

*By the Word or Logos. The Logos occupied an im- 
portant position in the Ancient Egyptian religion. See my 
Article on the subject in, The Oriental Review, January-Feb- 
ruary, 1893, p, 20 et seq. 

f Shu corresponds to the Makrokosm, the primordial Adam 
or androgenic Adam Qadmon, of the first chapter of the 
Hebrew Book of Genesis. As to Shu, see: History of the 
Egypt. Relig., by Dr. C. P. Tiele. Boston, 1882, pp. 84, 85, 
155. 156. 



I06 EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. 

ejected the spittle which became Tefnut 
(i.e., the deity or personification of, moist- 
ure.) There did not exist any other to 
work with Me. By My own Will I laid 
the foundation of all things, and the evolu- 
tions of things, and the evolutions which 
took place from the evolutions of their 
births, which took place through the evo- 
lutions of their offspring, became multi- 
plied. My shadow* was united with Me, 
and produced Shu and Tefnut from the 
emanation of Myself, * * * thus from 
one deity I became three deities * * * 
I gathered together My members and 
wept over them, and from the tears which 
fell from My eye, men and women sprung 
into existence." 

The duplicate copy of this chapter 
reads : " I developed Myself from the 
primeval matter which I made. My name 
is Osiris, the germ of primeval matter. I 

* The Hebrew She-kkeen-ah, or Glory ? 



EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. I07 

have worked My Will to its full extent in 
this earth, I have spread abroad ( or, ex- 
panded Myself,) and fitted it * * * I 
uttered My Name as a Word of Power, 
from My own mouth, and I straightway 
developed Myself by evolution. I evolved 
Myself under the form of the evolutions of 
the god Khepera, and I developed Myself 
out of the primeval matter which has 
evolved multitudes of evolutions from the 
beginning of time. No-thing existed on 
this earth (before Me,) I made all things. 
There was none other who worked with 
Me at that time. I made all evolutions by 
means of that soul, which I raised up there 
from inertness out of the watery matter."* 
This is a most important papyrus for a 
knowledge of Ancient Egyptian phi- 
losophy. 

" ' In the beginning : When there was 

* The Nile. Notes for Travellers in Egypt, by E. A. 
Wallis Budge, Litt. D., F.S.A., etc., second ed. London, 
1892, p. 165 et seq. 



Io8 EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. 

not yet heaven, when there was not yet 
earth, when there were not yet men, when 
the gods were not yet born, when there 
was not yet death.'* Nu alone was ex- 
isting, the water (or humid) principle of 
all things, and in that primordial water, 
Tumu, the father of the gods.f The day 
of creation came, Shu raised the waters 
upon the staircase which is in Khmunu.J 
The earth was made even under his feet, 
as a long united table ; heaven appeared 
above his head as a ceiling of iron (or 
steel) upon which rolled the divine Ocean. 
Hor (Horus) and his sons Hapi, Amsit 

* Inscriptions in the pyramid of Pepi I., 1. 664 {circa 
3233-3200 B.C.,) in the Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la 
FhiloL, et h I'Arch. ^gypt., etc., Vol. VIII., p. 104. 

f Comp. The Fer-em-hru or, Book of the Dead, edition of 
Ed. Naville, ch. XVII., 1. 3, 4. In the passage cited from 
Pepi, 1. 664 et seq., Tumu is also a primordial deity and its 
female sakti or principle, is Nu or Nut, the sky. 

X It is from this action that the deity was named Shu from 
the root, Shu to lift up, to raise. Later, through a pun, he 
obtained the meaning of Luminous. Comp. also Naville's 
ed. of the Per-em-hru last cited, 1. 4 et seq. 



EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. 1 09 

(or Mestha,) Tuamautef and Qebhsen- 
nuf, the gods of the four cardinal points, 
went out at once and posted themselves 
at the four corners of the inferior table, 
and received the four angles of the firma- 
ment upon the point of their sceptres ; the 
sun appeared and the voice of the god, 
the first day is arisen and the world was 
thereafter constituted, such as it ought to 
ever remain ! " * 

"Glory of all things, God, the divine 
and the divine nature. Principles of tKe 
beings ; God, the Intelligence, nature and 
matter. Wisdom manifests the universe, 
of which the divine is the principle, the 
nature, energy, necessity, the end and the 
renewing. 

There was darkness without limit over 
the abyss and the water, and a subtle 
and intelligent spirit, contained in chaos 

*G. Maspero in the Revue de V Hist, des Religions. Le 
Livre des Moris, Vol. XV., pp. 269, 270. 



EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. 



by the divine pow^er. Then gushed forth 
the holy light, and under the sand (i.e., the 
atomic dryness ) the elements went forth 
from the humid essence, and all the gods 
distributed the fecundity of nature. The 
universe being in confusion and disorder, 
the buoyant elements ascended, and the 
heavier were established as a foundation 
under the damp sand, (and) everything 
became separated by fire and suspended, 
so as to be raised by the spirit." * 

The Ancient Egyptians made many 
more statements which undoubtedly re- 
ferred to an unknown, all-powerful, ideal 
deity of the highest order, I have a great 
number of such, but will not bring them 
forward in this writing ; I refer the reader 

* Hermes Trismegistos, second ed., by Louis Menard. 
Paris, 1867, pp. 27, 28. Hermetis Trismegisti Foetuander ; 
ad fidem codicum manu scriptorum recognovit, by Gustavus 
Parthey. Berolini, 1854, p. 31. The word "sand" is used 
to symbolize the positive or atomic dryness, and " damp 
sand," the atomic humidity, or the negative. 



OF KHEPRA. 



for some quotations on this subject, to 
the valuable writings of Mr. P. Le Page 
Renouf, especially to his ; Religion of 
Ancient Egypt ( Hibbert Lectures for 
1879), which I have already cited in 
several places. 

It will be seen from these quotations, 
that Khepra, the scarabseus deity, espe- 
cially as Tum-Khepra; occupied a most- 
elevated position, I might say the most 
elevated, of all the religious conceptions 
of the Ancient Egyptians, for beyond it, 
was the unknown ideal deity whom none, 
could form a conception of. Khepra was 
asserted to have generated and caused to 
come into existence, itself through itself, 
it united in itself, the male and female 
principles of life. It was androgenic. 
The scarabaeus was the hieroglyph of the 
creator, the to be, to become, to exist, the 
eternal, the coming into being from chaotic 
non-being, also the itself transforming or 



ATMU-KHEPRA. 



becomings the emanating or creating 
power, also, the universe. Khepra was 
" Father of the gods," connected with 
the idea of the rising of the sun from 
the darkness of night, Khepra was used 
to typify the resurrection from the dead 
of the spirits of men. It represented 
the active and positive in antithesis 
to Atmu, or Turn. With Atmu as Atmu 
(or, Tum)-Khepra, it represented the 
positive and negative united, spirit and 
matter. 

Atmu, Tum or Tmu, was the symbol 
of the eternal night or darkness of Chaos, 
which preceded the emanation of light, 
it was the type of senility and absolute 
death, the negative and end. It was the 
nocturnal or hidden sun, as Horus was 
the rising sun, and Ra the risen sun, 
proceeding in its course each day through 
the firmament. Tum was not however 
considered as absolutely inert, it was the 



ATMU NOT ABSOLUTELY INERT MATTER, II3 

precursor of the rising sun, and the point 
of departure of the setting sun, and was 
the nocturnal sun, and was also a point of 
departure into existence, of all the created 
and emanated in the universe. It, as well 
as Khepra, in some of the texts is called 
" Father of the gods." * 

This deity was the unknown and in- 
accessible, primordial deity of chaos, 
"existing alone in the abyss," before the 
appearance of Light. One of the texts 
reads : 

" Homage to thee, sun at its setting, 
Tum-Harmakhis, god renewing and form- 
ing itself in itself, double essence. * * 
Hail to thee author of the gods, who 
hast suspended heaven for the circulation 
of thy two eyes, author of the earth in its 
extent, and from whom the light is, so as 

*Book of the Dead, ch. XVII., 1. 1-4 ; XV., 1. 28, 29, 43, 
47; LXXIX., 1. I, 2; LXXVIII., 1. 12. Hymne h Ammon- 
Ra, by Eugene Grebaut. Paris, 1874, PP- n. 28, II2, 
115, 120.122, 295. 



114 ATMU NOT ABSOLUTELY INERT MATTER. 

to give to all men the sensation of the 
sight of his fellow creature." * 

It is of the greatest importance to an 
understanding of the Egyptian religion 
and philosophy, and especially of the Per- 
em-hru, the so-called, Book of the Dead ; 
that the Egyptian psychology be com- 
prehended ; in order to enable the reader 
to do this, I have prepared the following 
condensed statement of the same. 

I. The Body was called Khat. This 
was embalmed and then placed in the 
tomb. 

II. The Soul was called, Ba or Bai, 
plur. Baiu. This was the part of the 
spiritual which was thought to contain the 
elements necessary for the world-life of a 
man, such as judgment, conscience, etc. 
It seems to be the same termed psuke or 

*Paul Pierret, Atudes AgyptoL, I., 8l. 



PSYCHOLOGY. 115 



psyche by the Greeks. This Ba performed 
the pilgrimage in the underworld, and 
was judged for the conduct of the man it 
inhabited in this world, by Osiris and the 
Forty-two judges. It was usually repre- 
sented as a bird, especially as a human- 
headed sparrow-hawk. It fluttered to and 
fro between this world and the next, 
sometimes visiting the mummy in its 
tomb. It was sometimes represented as 
a crane, at others as a lapwing. It is 
paralleled by the Ruah of the Hebrew 
Qabbalah. 

III. The Intellectual part of man's 
spirit was called, Xu or Khu. It was 
considered as part of the flame detached 
from the upper divine fire. Freed from 
mortality it wandered through space and 
had the power of keeping company with 
or haunting humanity, and even of enter- 
ing into and taking possession of the body 



Il6 PSYCHOLOGY. 



of a living man. The Egyptians spoke 
of being possessed with a khu as we 
would say of a being possessed by a 
spirit.* It was considered as a luminous 
spirit. It was the Intelligence and an- 
swers to the Nous of the Greeks and the 
Neshamah of the Hebrew Qabbalah. 

IV. The Shadow or Shade was called, 
Khaibit. This created the Individuality, 
and was an important part of the person- 
ality. There was a valley in which the 
Shades were, in the Underworld. It was 
restored to the soul in the second life. 
They are frequently mentioned in the 
Per-em-hru. His shadow, would early 
attract the attention of the primitive man. 

V. The Name was called, Ren. This 
was the Personality, that something, 
which continued to know itself as a dis- 

*F. Chabas, VEgyptologie. Paris, 1878, Vol. II., p. 103. 



OF THE KA. 117 



tinct individual, through every change of 
the atoms and appearances of the body. 
In the Per-em-hru was written: "The 
Osiris (then the name of the dead was 
inserted.) " It was restored eternally to 
the soul in the second life. The Ba re- 
tained the Ren in its journey through the 
Underworld. 

VI. The Hfe or Double was called, 
Ka, plur. Kau. This was the vital 
principle, necessary to the existence of 
man as an animal being on this earth. It 
was a spiritual double, a second perfect 
exemplar or copy, of his flesh, blood, etc., 
body; but of a matter less dense than 
corporeal matter, but having all its shape 
and features, being child, man, or woman, 
as the living had been. It dwelt with the 
mummy in the tomb and had a semi- 
material form and substance, and I am 
inclined to think, from the texts, it had 



Il8 OF THE KA. 



power to leave the tomb when it pleased 
but always returned. Its emblem was 
the ankh or crux ansata. It was some- 
thing like the higher Nephesh of the 
Hebrew Qabbalah. The sacrificial food 
left in the tombs and the pictures on their 
walls were for the benefit of the Ka. The 
Ka corresponded to the Latin, genius. 
Its original meaning may have been 
image; * it was like the Greek eidolon, 
i.e., ghost. The funeral oblations were 
made to the image or Ka. The Ka was 
a spiritual double of the man, a kind of 
prototype in the Upper World, of the 
man in the Lower World, our earth.f 

VII. The Mummy or the Husk was 
called, Sahu. It was the body after em- 
balmment. " His body is in the condition 

*Comp. Trans. Soc. Biblical Literature, Vol. VI., pp. 
494-508. 

fComp. Religion of Ancient Egypt by P. Le Page 
Renouf, p. 153 et seq. 



OF THE MUMMY. II9 

of being true; it will not perish."* The 
Sahu was considered a true being as it was 
assumed that it would always remain the 
same. It was like the lower form of the 
Nephesh of the Hebrew Qabbalah. The 
atoms of the mummy-body were still in- 
tact held together by the cohesion of the 
particles. This cohesion was looked upon 
as a spiritual energy keeping the particles 
together, in the form of the mummy. The 
word Sahu may sometimes refer to this 
living personality. 

VIII. The Heart was called ^^. This 
was thought to be the seat of life, the life 
being in the blood, and the embryonic 
life starting with the pulsations of the 
heart. See, Appendix A. 

The Ba, performed the journey 
through the Underworld accompanied by 

* Mythe d'Horus, by E. Naville. 



OF THE KA. 



the Name and Shadow, until it reached 
the Hall of Judgment; if pronounced pure, 
the Heart was then given it. The Name, 
Shadow and Heart, then awaited reunion 
with the Khu and Ka for the condition of 
final immortality and the power to make 
the transformations. The body was em- 
balmed and the Ka dwelt in the sepulchre 
with it, but went in and out of the tomb. 
The Khu also accompanied the Ba in its 
journey through the Underworld and 
assisted it, but in case of an adverse judg- 
ment in the Hall of Osiris and the decree 
of annihilation ; the Khu fled back to its 
immortal source of life and light. 

Not any of these, by its own nature, 
could exist for any length of time entirely 
separated from the others ; if left to itself, 
that so separated, would in time dissolve 
into new elements and if it were the 
soul, it would die a second time, the per- 
sonality and individuality would then 



LITANIES FOR THE DEAD. 



perish and become annihilated ; this was 
the much feared, second death. This 
however might be prevented by the 
piety of the survivors, in repeating the 
prayers and Htanies and performing the 
lustrations and sacrifices, for the dead. 
The lot to do this usually fell to the eldest 
son and in default of sons, to the daugh- 
ters, etc., no relations existing, the dead 
persons' slaves could perform it. The 
priests were also left annuities to perform 
perpetually, the sacred duties to the dead. 
Embalmment preventing for centuries, 
decomposition ; continued prayers, de- 
votions and offerings would save, it was 
believed, the Ka, the Ba, and the Khu, 
from the second death, and procure for 
them what was necessary to prolong their 
existence. The Ka, they thought, never 
quitted the place where the mummy was 
except at some time to return. The Ba, 
and the Khu went away from it to follow 



LITANIES FOR THE DEAD. 



the gods, but they continually returned as 
would a traveler who re-entered his house 
after an absence. The tomb was the 
defunct's ''eternal dwelling house" on 
earth, the houses of the living were only 
as inns or stopping places. In case of a 
judgment in favor of the Ba in the Hall of 
Osiris, the Khu united to the Ba, Khaibet, 
Ab, Ka, etc., rose up to the Egyptian 
heaven, and the whole united was able to 
make whatever transformations pleased it. 



VIII. 

FORGERY OF SCARABS IN MODERN TIMES. 
DIFFICULTY OF DETECTING SUCH. 
OTHER EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES ALSO 
COUNTERFEITED BY THE PRESENT 
INHABITANTS OF EGYPT. 

MPRISSE says:* "Most of the 
• fellahs who inhabit the land, 
formerly Memphis and Thebes, live only 
from the products of their finds. Con- 
strained to cease from their lucrative 
researches, they are reduced to the coun- 
terfeiting of figurines, amulets and the 
other objects of art which they formerly 
found in the earth. Necessity the mother 
of industry has caused them in a short 

* Collections d' Antiquites Egypt, au Caire, p. i et seq. 



124 FORGERY OF SCARABS. 

time to make wonderful progress. With- 
out any practice in the arts, and with the 
rudest tools, some of the peasants have 
carved scarabs and beautiful statuettes 
and ornamented them with hieroglyphic 
legends. They very well know that car- 
touches add much value to the antiquities, 
and they are never in want of copies of 
them either from the great monuments or 
the original scarabs. They use in making 
the copies a limestone of fine and compact 
grain, soapstone, serpentine and alabaster. 
The objects made of limestone are daubed 
with bitumen taken from the mummies, 
or from the colors taken away from the 
paintings in the hypogea, finally some are 
covered uniformly with a brilliant pottery 
glaze which renders, it is true, the forms 
rather blurred and not easy to see, but 
which resembles in a surprising manner, 
antiquities which the action of fire or of 
earth, impregnated with saltpetre, have 



FORGERY OF SCARABS. 1 25 

slightly damaged. The feigned hiero- 
glyphs therein are mistaken for those as 
to which the work has been neglected. 
Their statuettes recall the figurines of 
poor ware, which the Ancient Egyptians 
placed in so great a number in their tombs. 
In spite of their imperfections, the fellahs 
have been perfectly successful in deceiving 
most of the travelers, generally grossly 
ignorant of antiquities. Hard stones, 
such as basalt, green jasper, burnt ser- 
pentine, green feldspar, chalcedony, cor- 
nelian, etc., upon which the rude tools of 
the fellahs would not have worked, would 
have become, for the amateurs in antiqui- 
ties, the only pieces of authentic origin ; 
but the Jews of Cairo, also as rapacious 
and more able than the Arabs, have 
engraved with the wheel, scarabs and 
amulets denuded of legends ; and finally 
have entirely counterfeited them, so that 
all these little objects are now very much 



126 FORGERY OF SCARABS. 

suspected, and their appreciation to-day, 
demands understanding of the text much 
more than knowledge of Egyptian art. 

Not only the tourists, the people of 
leisure from Europe, who bring back from 
all the classic lands some antiquities, in 
place of observation and study, which are 
not sold; purchase these falsified antiqui- 
ties, but also people who pride themselves 
upon having a knowledge of archaeology, 
often buy them. Most of the collections 
of the Museums of Europe contain, more 
or less, objects fabricated in our day in 
Egypt. 'Luxor' says M. Mariette, 'is a 
centre for fabrications in which scarabs, 
statuettes and even steles, are imitated 
with an address which often leads astray 
the most instructed antiquary.'" 

Mr. Henry A. Rhind* writing in 1862 
says : "There is now at Thebes an arch- 

* Thebes ; its Tombs and their Tenants, ancient and 
modern. London, 1862. 



FORGERY OF SCARABS. 1 27 

forger of scarabaei — a certain AH Gamooni, 
whose endeavors, in the manufacture of 
these much sought after relics, have been 
crowned with the greatest success. * * 
Scarabaei of elegant and well finished 
descriptions, are not beyond the range 
of this curious counterfeiter. These he 
makes of the same material as the ancients 
used — a close-grained, easily cut lime- 
stone — which, after it is cut into shape 
and lettered, receives a greenish glaze by 
being baked on a shovel with brass 
filings. AH not content with closely 
imitating, has even aspired to the creative; 
so antiquarians must be on their guard 
lest they waste their time and learning, 
on antiquities of a very modern date."* 

'^ Ibid., pp. 253-255. Comp. Gliddon, Indigenous Races, 
p. 192 note. 



IX. 

PHCENICIAN SCARABS. MANUFACTURED 
MOSTLY AS ARTICLE OF TRADE. USED 
INSCRIBED SCARABS AS SEALS IN COM- 
MERCIAL AND OTHER TRANSACTIONS. 
MANY SCARABS FOUND IN SARDINIA. 

ARCH^OLOGISTS frequently find 
L in lands bordering on the shores of 
the Mediterranean sea, scarabs and scar- 
abeoids, on which are engraved subjects 
which are Egyptian, Chaldean, Assyrian, 
Hittite or Persian; they were intended 
apparently to be used as signets, and were 
incised with short inscriptions in Phoeni- 
cian, and sometimes, in Aramaic or in 
Hebrew, giving the name of the owner of 
the sienet. 



PHCENICIAN SCARABS. I 29 

These had been mostly manufactured 
in their entirety, as articles of trade, for 
sale by the ancient merchants of Tyre and 
Sidon, or they were Egyptian, Assyrian 
or other originals upon which, Phoenician 
lapidaries had engraved the name of the 
later Phoenician owner. In spite of not 
being an artistic people producing works 
of originality, this people, the great 
mariners and merchants of antiquity, had 
in an eminent degree the genius of 
assimilation or adaptation, and manu- 
factured cylinders, cones, spheroids, scar- 
abs and signets of all kinds, at first for 
themselves, and afterwards as an article 
of sale to the people with whom they 
traded. 

They also used seals in their commer- 
cial and maritime transactions, which they 
surrounded with the same formalities 
which we find in Assyria, Babylonia and 
Chaldea. When they dealt with these 



130 SCARABS FOUND IN SARDINIA. 

last mentioned peoples, the Phoenicians 
came into contact with nations, whose 
most unimportant transactions were put 
into writing by a scribe, and sealed in the 
presence of witnesses, with the seal of the 
contracting parties. They therefore in 
dealing with these people were obliged to 
have and use signets. *f Such contracts 
have been found dating between 745-729 

B.C. 

In the island of Sardinia have been 
found numerous intaglios under the form 
of scarabs, they were apparently used as 
signets. The under parts are incised with 
Egyptian, Assyro-Chaldean or Persian 
subjects. In the necropolis of Tharros, 
an early Phoenician colony situated near 

*Such contracts written on terra cotta, have been found 
sealed with impressions of the finger nails on the margin of 
the terra cotta before it was baked ; others have had some- 
thing as to the act done, referred to on the margins, written 
in Phoenician letters. There has been found an example of 
this as early as 783 B.C. 

fMenant. Les Pierres Gravies de la Haute- A sie, p. 211 
et seq. 



SCARABS IN SARDINIA. 13I 

the present Torre di San Giovanni di 
Sinis, have been found more than 600 
scarabs ornamented with Egyptian, As- 
syrian and Persian subjects ; * and one 
might believe a colony which came from 
Egypt or Assyria settled there. These 
scarabs are usually cut in dark green 
jasper, some are made of cornelian, others 
of a glass-paste, rarely in amethyst or 
sardonyx. The work is variable some- 
times carefully done, but none of the 
scarabs have the clearness of those found 
in Egypt, nor of the Assyro-Chaldean of 
Asia. Most of these scarabs, which are 
always made in nearly the same form, 
were mounted, some in gold and others 
in silver ; also sometimes in other metals 
which the corrosions from age had already 
caused to disappear when they were 
found. 

These intaglios can be divided from 

*Crespi, Catalogo, p. 138, No. I. 



132 SCARABS IN SARDINIA. 

the nature of the subjects into three 
varieties. The first those imitating the 
Egyptian; the second, the Assyro-Chal- 
dean ; and the third, the Persian. All 
these scarabs are of Phoenician manu- 
facture, but they were probably made in 
Sardinia, as the remains of the workshops 
and materials used in making them, have 
been found there. They do not go back 
of 500 B.C. The Phoenicians in their 
colonies, showed no more originality in 
their work than they did in the mother 
country, and have been only the inter- 
mediary agents between the civilization 
of the Orient and that of the Occident. 
This people even counterfeited Egyptian 
manufactures and antiquities in order to 
sell them, and the borrowings in their 
own religion show, they were governed 
more by the gains of trade than the 
desires or depths of piety. There are a 
number in the Cesnola collection in the 



A PHCENICIAN SCARAB. 1 33 

Metropolitan Museum of Art in New 
York City. 

There is a magnificent scarab in green 
jasper in the British Museum, but where 
it was produced is not known. It appears 
to be from the chisel of an Egyptian 
artist. The base however has been en- 
graved by another ; its subject is clearly 
Assyrian, in the style of work done with 
the drill, by the artists of Calah. In the 
field of the signet is a symbol unknown to 
Assyria or Egypt, below this is evidently 
the Egyptian ankh or crux ansata and 
below this is the inscription : " ( Signet ) 
of Hodo, the Scribe." This a beautiful 
specimen of the intelligent work of the 
Phoenicians. 



X. 

ETRUSCAN SCARABS. ORIGIN OF AND 
WHERE FOUND. COPIED FROM EGYP- 
TIAN BUT WITH CHANGES IN SUBJECTS, 
SIZE AND ORNAMENTATION. THE 

ENGRAVING OF. WHERE USUALLY 
FOUND. USES BY THE ETRUSCANS. 
GREEK AND ROMAN SCARABS. GNOSTIC, 
OF THE BASILIDIANS. 

THE archaic people of ancient Etru- 
ria did not make cameos, their 
gems were intaglios and were incised on 
the under side, on forms shaped in the 
model of the scarabseus or beetle. The 
use of the form therefore was most likely 
derived from those used in the valley of 
the Nile. The Etruscan scarabs were 
however not correct representations ; they 



ETRUSCAN SCARABS. I35 

were conventional and exaggerated re- 
semblances of the insect. 

The Etruscan scarabaeus is found in 
different parts of Italy, quite frequently 
at Chiusi, in Tuscany, which was formerly 
ancient Etruria; from whence, the name 
Etruscan for those found in this part of 
Italy, has been derived. 

They were usually manufactured of 
common red sard, such as is now often 
met with in the beds of Italian torrents, 
but Etruscan scarabs have also been found 
made of sardonyx, cornelian, onyx and 
agate, also, but rarely, of chalcedony. 

The ancient inhabitants of Italy fol- 
lowed the Egyptian form in making the 
representation except, that the back and 
the wing cases of the scarab are set much 
higher than the Egyptian, and there is 
usually a raised ridge running along the 
junction, also the legs are cut out on the 
side, and a slight difference exists in the 



136 MAKING OF ETRUSCAN SCARABS. 

ornamentation and engraving of the wing 
cases. The stones have been rubbed into 
shape apparently by corundum. Few 
exceed an inch, and most are not over 
half an inch in length, whereas the Egyp- 
tian were from the size of our ordinary 
house fly to those a number of feet across. 
The material of the Etruscan is also 
always semi-transparent, except those 
burned which has made the sard opaque. 
The fiat side or base was engraved with 
intaglio. This engraving though in early 
examples rude and done with the drill, 
was in later times, improved by the use 
of the wheel, diamond dust and the 
diamond point, and by the polishing of 
both the surface and the incised parts, and 
also, by the addition, both at the sides 
and around the engraved base, of an 
ornamental border of small strokes fol- 
lowing each other closely, resembling in 
some specimens, the milling of a coin ; in 



SUBJECTS ON ETRUSCAN SCARABS. 137 

Others, it is like a widely linked chain 
or string of beads, or a loosely twisted 
cable, and In others like the ornamentation 
known as "egg moulding." 

In Egyptian scarabs the flat or under 
part of the stone, which is the side en- 
graved in intaglio, has representations of 
deities or hieroglyphs ; in the Etruscan, 
the subjects engraved in intaglio on the 
base, are representations of animals, wild 
or domestic, or are those derived from 
Egyptian, Assyrian or Babylonian sources, 
and after acquaintance with the Greeks, 
subjects derived from early Greek myths, 
especially the deeds of Herakles and of 
the heroes of the Trojan War, of those of 
Thebes and the sports of the Palaestra. 

Sometimes the name of the subject 
was engraved on one side of it, and 
occasionally the wearer's name or a word 
of mystic meaning, rarely symbols or 
figures of the Etruscan gods or chlmseras. 



138 SUBJECTS ON ETRUSCAN SCARABS. 

The engraving is of great service to the 
historian and student of the glyptic art, 
as the subjects show the transition from 
Assyrian, Egyptian, and Persian forms 
and figures, to the archaic Greek and the 
best period of stone engraving. 

Many of the Etruscan examples have 
been found at Prseneste, the modern 
Palestrina, and in the necropolis of Clu- 
sium ; some of those found there, have 
engraved on the base the lotus flower 
with four-winged figures of archaic Etrus- 
can form, the kynokephallos ape, the sa- 
cred asp or uraeus of Egypt, the winged 
sun of Thebes and the bull Apis ; on 
others are figures copied from Assyrian 
originals ; on others are Herakles fighting 
the lion, Herakles stealing the tripod of 
Apollo and discovered by the latter; 
Ajax and Cassandra, a Harpy, etc. Some 
of these have been found in tombs and 
other places with the color changed to an 



ETRUSCAN SCARABS, AMULETS. 1 39 

opaque white by the action of fire. These 
have been burned with the body of their 
owner when he was cremated. 

The Etruscans have evidently bor- 
rowed the form without caring for the 
cult ; there does not appear with them 
any mysterious, religious or astronomical 
meaning, nor the veneration for it, which 
existed among the old Egyptians ; but no 
doubt, the representation was considered 
as a talisman or preservative amulet and 
was worn as such, but in many instances 
likely, only as a matter of ornament in 
dress. 

They were pierced like those of Egypt 
longitudinally, and one method of wear- 
ing them, was, by stringing them, inter- 
mingled with beads, as a necklace, but 
they were also worn as a signet stone in 
a ring with a swivel, so they could be 
turned and the incised part used as a seal 
by the owner. 



I40 NO TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 

I think it likely that the Etruscans 
at first, purchased the scarabs from the 
Phoenician traders whose merchant ships, 
as I have said in the preceding chapter, 
trafficked in ornaments and jewelry at an 
early period, and who likely, at first, may 
have brought some from Egypt and after- 
wards manufactured scarabs as an article 
of barter. 

There is one peculiarity to be noted 
in the glyptography of the Etruscans, the 
absence of a transitional period between 
the extremely rude designs of the early 
style, made almost entirely by the use of 
the drill, and the intaglios of the most 
beautiful finish in low relief. Mr. King, 
in his work on Antique Gems, says : 
"While the first class offers caricatures 
of men and animals, the favorite subjects 
being figures throwing the discus, fawns 
with amphora, cows with sucking calves, 
or the latter alone, the second gives us 



DIVISION OF ETRUSCAN GLYPTOGRAPHY. I41 

subjects from the Greek mythology, 
especially scenes from Homer and the 
tragedians, among which, the stories of 
Philoctetes and Bellerophon occur with 
remarkable frequency." I think the 
rudely made are likely of Etruscan or 
Phoenician manufacture, the finely exe- 
cuted of Greek. 

The inscriptions on Etruscan stones 
are nearly always the names of the per- 
sons represented on them. There are but 
few exceptions to this. We may there- 
fore divide Etruscan glyptography into : 

I. Etruscan scarabs, with Etruscan or 
Assyrian subjects. 

IL Etruscan scarabs, with archaic 
Greek subjects. 

There are many more of the latter 
than the former. The Greek subjects 
most frequently met with, refer to actions 
by Herakles, Perseus, Tydeus, Theseus, 
Peleus, Ulysses, Achilles and Ajax. 



142 PERIOD OF ETRUSCAN SCARABS. 

The time of manufacture and use by 
the Etruscans was most probably before 
the Ilird century B.C., at which time, 
Etruria was conquered by the Romans, 
its manufactures destroyed and its artists 
taken to Rome. 

The Greeks borrowed the form from 
the Egyptians, but improved on the en- 
graving, which they made more natural 
and artistic ; finally they suppressed the 
insect but preserved the oval form of the 
base. The Romans also adopted, it may 
be surmised from the Etruscans, the 
scarab signet and retained its form until 
the later days of the Republic. Winckel- 
mann, says : Those with the figures or 
heads of Serapis or Anubis incised upon 
them are of this period.* I think it 
likely, that those with this deity upon 
them may go back to the period of the 
Ptolemys. 

*Winckelmann, Art. 2, c. i. 



GNOSTIC GEMS. 143 



At the end of the 1st or beginning of 
the Ilnd century a.d., arose the gnostic 
Egyptian sect called the Basilidians. They 
introduced an amulet or talisman. It 
was made oval in the form of the base 
of the Egyptian scarab. Such talisman 
were usually made of black Egyptian 
basalt, sometimes of sard or other hard 
stones. Upon them were engraved mys- 
terious hieroglyphs and figures, called 
Abraxas, and they are known as Abrax- 
oides. Among the figures engraved was 
frequently that of the scarabaeus. Mont- 
faucon has given a number of them in his 
Antiquities.* Chifilet has also given 
several, f 

*Vol. II., part 2, p. 339. Ed. of Paris. 
fComp. Fosbrooke Encyc. of Antiq. London, 1825, 
part I., p. 208. 



APPENDIX A, 



THE heart of man was considered to be the 
source from whence proceeded, not only 
the beginnings of life but also the beginnings of 
thought. It was symbolized by the scarab. 
Examples of the heart have been found, some 
with a representation of the human head at the 
top of them, and of human hands crossed over 
them ; and others, having a figure of the soul 
in the shape of a hawk with outstretched wings, 
incised on one side of the model. 

Since the foregoing chapters were put in 
type, which were based on the Book of the Dead 
as published by M. Paul Pierret in a French 
translation, from the Turin papyrus and the 
papyri in the Louvre, as mentioned in my 
Introduction ; the Translation and Commentary 
of "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" by P. Le 



146 BOOK OF THE DEAD. 

Page Renouf, Esq.,* Parts I. and II., have 
appeared. 

Mr. Renouf's translation is based on Das 
JEgyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII. bis XX. Dy- 
nastic by M. Edouard Naville,f and is from 
papyri of the Theban Dynasties and from a very 
much older period than that of the Turin papy- 
rus. 

The chapters so far given in Mr. Renouf's 
translation which relate to the heart, are the 
26th, 27th, 28th, 29A, 29B, 30A, and 30B. They 
are as follows : 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Chapter whereby the Heart is given to a person in 
the Netherworld. 

HE saith : Heart, J mine to me, in the place 
of Hearts ! Whole Heart ! mine to me in 
the place of Whole Hearts ! 

* Privately printed for, The Society of Biblical Archaeology. 
London, 1893. 

\ BerliUy Asher und Co., 1886. Einleittmg, in 4to, v. ; 204 p. ; ler 
Band, Text und Vignetten, in folio, CCXII. pi., 2e Band, Varianten, 
447 P- 

X The Egyptian texts have two names for the Heart. One ab, the 
other, hatu, Ab'vi used as connected with lively motion. The word 
hatu seems to include not only the heart properly to say, but also the 
lungs, and by it the heart was likely considered also in connection 
with the larynx and the respiratory organs of man. Mr. Renouf uses 
in his translation, for the latter, the expression : Whole Heart. 



CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 147 

Let me have my Heart that it may rest 
within me ; but I shall feed upon the food of 
Osiris, on the eastern side of the mead of amar- 
anthine flowers. 

Be mine a bark, for descending the stream 
and another, for ascending. 

I go down into the bark wherein thou art. 

Be there given to me my mouth wherewith 
to speak, and my feet for walking ; and let me 
have my arms wherewith to overthrow my 
adversaries. 

Let two hands from the Earth open my 
mouth : Let Seb, the Erpa* of the gods, part 
my two jaws ; let him open my two eyes which 
are closed, and give motion to my two hands 
which are powerless: and let Anubis give vigour 
to my legs, that I may raise myself up upon 
them. 

And may Sechit, the divine one, lift me up ; 
so that I may arise in Heaven and issue my 
behest in Memphis. 

I am in possession of my Heart, I am in 
possession of my Whole Heart, I am in possession 
of my arms and I have possession of my legs. 

* See, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., XII., p. 359. 



CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 



[I do whatsoever my Genius {Ka?) willeth, 
and my Soul {Ba?) is not bound to my Body 
{Khat?) at the gates of Amenta.] 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Chapter whereby the Heart of a person is not 
taken from him in the Netherworld. 

OYE gods who seize upon Hearts and who 
pluck out the Whole Heart ; and whose 
hands fashion anew the Heart of a person 
according to what he hath done ; lo now, let 
that be forgiven to him by you. 

Hail to you, O ye Lords of Everlasting Time 
and Eternity ! 

Let not my Heart be torn from me by your 
fingers. 

Let not my Heart be fashioned anew accord- 
ing to all the evil things said against me. 

For this Heart of mine is the Heart of the 
god of mighty names (i.e., Thoth,) of the great 
god whose words are in his members, and who 
giveth free course to his Heart which is within 
him. 



CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 149 

And most keen of insight is his Heart among 
the gods. Ho to me ! Heart of mine ; I am in 
possession of thee, I am thy master, and thou 
art by me ; fall not away from me ; I am the 
dictator whom thou shalt obey in the Nether- 
world, 

CHAPTER XXVni. 

Chapter whereby the Heart of a person is not 
taken from him in the Netherworld. 

O LION-GOD ! 
I am Unbu* and what I abominate is 
the block of execution. 

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn 
from me by the Divine Champions f in Heliop- 
olis. 

O thou who clothest Osiris and hast seen 
Sutu, 

O thou who turnest back after having smitten 
him, and hast accomplished the overthrow. 

This Whole Heart of mine remaineth weep- 
ing over itself in (the) presence of Osiris. 

* One of the names of the solar god. 

t Likely the Forty -two Judges of the Psychostasia. Myer. 



150 CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 

Its Strength proceedeth from him, it hath 
obtained it by prayer from him. 

I have had granted to it and awarded to it, 
the glow of heart at the hour of the god of the 
Broad Face, and have offered the sacrificial 
cakes in Hermopolis. 

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn 
from me.* It is I who entrust to you its place, 
and vehemently stir your Whole Heart towards 
it in Sechit-hotepit and the years of triumph 
over all that it abhors, and taking all provisions 
at thine appointed time from thine hand after 
thee. 

And this Whole Heart of mine is laid upon 
the tablets of Tmu, who guideth me to the 
caverns of Sutu and who giveth me back my 
Whole Heart which hath accomplished its desire 
in (the) presence of the Divine Circle which is in 
the Netherworld. 

The sacrificial joint and the funereal raiment, 
let those who find them bury them. 

*M. Pierret stops his translation of this chapter here, saying: 
The end of this chapter is absolutely unintelligible ; the variants of the 
hieratic manuscripts do not make it clear. 



CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 151 

CHAPTER XXIXa. 

Chapter whereby the Heart of a person may not 
be taken from him in the Netherworld. 

BACK thou Messenger* of thy god ! Art 
thou come to carry off by violence this 
Whole Heart of mine, of the Living. f The gods 
have regard to my offerings and fall upon their 
faces, all together, upon their own earth. J 

Certain chapters referring to the Heart were 
incised upon hard precious stones, || and used 
as amulets and talisman. The XXVIth upon 
Lapis-lazuli, the XXVHth on green Felspar, 
the XXXth on Serpentine. The following was 
usually incised on Carnelian. 

CHAPTER XXIXb. 

Chapter of the Heart j upon Carjielian. 

I AM the Heron, the Soul of Ra, who conducts 
the Glorious ones to the Tuat. 

* The same as, angel, or one sent. 

tThat is, of the saved, of those declared re-born, in opposition to 
the heart of the wicked, those adjudged to be annihilated or suffer the 
second death. 

$The most ancient copies of this chapter are found, one on the 
coffin of Amamu, the other on that of Horhotep. Mission. Arch. 
Fran, au Caire, Tom. /., /. 757, /. SSS-JJ7- They are not perfect. 
The papyrus of Ani contains an imperfect copy of the chapter. 

1 See, Zeiis, 1880, Einige inedita by Prof. Ebers. 



152 CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 

It is granted to their Souls {Baiu?) to come 
forth upon the Earth, to do whatsoever their 
Genius {Ka?) willeth. 

It is granted to the Soul {£a?) of the Osiris 
(the name of the deceased was inserted here) 
to come forth upon the Earth to do whatsoever 
his Genius {Ka?) willeth. 

CHAPTER XXXa. 

Chapter whereby the Heart of a person is not 
kept back from him in the Netherworld. 

HEART mine which is that of my Mother, 
Whole Heart mine which was that of my 
coming upon Earth, 

Let there be no estoppel against me through 
evidence ; let not hindrance be made to me by 
the Divine Circle ; let there not be a fall of the 
Scale* against me in (the) presence of the great 
god. Lord of Amenta. 

Hail, to thee. Heart mine ; Hail to thee. 
Whole Heart mine, Hail to thee. Liver mine ! 

Hail to you, ye gods who are on the side 

*That is at the Psychostasia or weighing of the Ba, or responsible 
soul, of the defunct. Myer. 



CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 



153 



lock, conspicuous by your sceptres, announce 
my glory to Ra and convey it to Nehabkau. 

[And lo, though he be buried in the deep 
deep Grave, and bowed down to the region of 
annihilation, he is glorified there.] 

CHAPTER XXXb. 

HEART mine which is that of my Mother, 
Whole Heart mine which is that of my 
birth, 

Let there be no estoppel against me through 
evidence, let no hindrance be made to me by 
the Divine Circle ; fall thou not against me in 
(the) presence of him who is at the Balance. 

Thou art my Genius {Ka?) who art by me, 
the Artist who givest soundness to my limbs. 

Come forth to the bliss towards which we 
are bound ; 

Let not those Ministrants* who deal with a 
man according to the course of his life give a bad 
odour to my Name. 

Pleasant for us, pleasant for the listener, is 
the joy of the Weighing of the Words. 

* This refers likely to the Forty-two Judges in the Psychostasia. 
Myer. 



154 CHAPTERS ON THE HEART. 

Let not lies be uttered in the presence of the 
great god (Osiris?) Lord of Amenta. 

Lo ! how great art thou [ as the Triumphant 
one.] 

This chapter is found upon numerous papyri 
and scarabs. The differences in the texts are 
many, the principal may be considered as in the 
30A and 30B, of Naville's Text. 

The oldest copy we have on a scarab, is on 
that of king Sebak-em-saf of the Xlllth Dynasty. 
In the British Museum, No. 7876. Dr. Samuel 
Birch has described it* in his study on the 
"Formulas relating to the Heart." He says : 
"This amulet is of unusual shape ; the body of 
the insect is made of a remarkably fine green 
jasper carved into the shape of the body and 
head of the insect. This is inserted into a base 
of gold in the shape of a tablet. * * * fj^g 
legs of the insect are * * * of gold and 
carved in relief * * * The hieroglyphs are 
incised in outline, are coarse, and not very 
legible."! 

* Zeitschr, 1870, p. 32. 

+ See further on the subject of the Heart, Zeitschr, 1866, 6q et seq., 
1867, pp. 16, 54, and Dr. Samuel Birch in, Catalogue of Egyptian 
Antiquities in Alnwick Castle, p. 224. 



INDEX, 



Aanru, the Egyptian heaven, 6i. See, Hotep. 

Aar, See, Aanru, 6i. 

Ab. The Heart, Introd. ix., .119, 145 et seq. 
See, Heart. 

Abraxas gems, 143. 

Abydos. Scarabs of, 27, 28. 

Amen, 77. See, Ammon. 

Amen-em-hat III. Fine cameo of, 2)Zi 34- 

Amen-hotep II. Signet ring of, 35. 

Amen-hotep, or 

Amenophis III. Scarabs of, 25, 53, 54, 55, 56, 

Amenophis III. Scarabs of, found in Mesopo- 
tamia, 62, 63, 

Amen-Ra. The scarabaeus sacred to, 13, 

Amenta, 148, 152, 154. See, Amenti. 

Amenti, 102. See, Amenta, 

Ammon or Amen, 89, 90. 

Ammon-Ra. Hymn to, 99 et seq. 

Amsit, 108. 

Androgene. The scarabaeus an, 79. 

Androgenic idea as to the scarabaeus, 7, note. 

Ajikk, 118. See, Crux ansata. 

Annihilated. The wicked, at the psychostasia, 
adjudged to be, 94, 96. 

Annihilation. The region of, glorification even 
in, 153. 



156 



Annuities perpetual, left the priests to perform 

the sacred duties to the dead, 121. 
Anubis, 147. 
Apap, the Evil One, 86. 

Aristophanes ridicules the use of the scarabaeus, 7 
Assyrian contracts sealed, 129, 130 and note. 
Astrologers, 73. 
Astronomers, 73. 

Astronomy. The scarabaeus in, 12, 13. 
Ateuchus. The Genus, 4, 5, 6. 
Ateuchus sacer yEgyptioriim, 5, 6. 
Ateuchus sacer. Symbolism of the, 6. 
Athena (Neith) symbolized by a vulture and 

scarabaeus, 12. 
Atmu or Turn, 70, 102, 112. See, Turn and Tmu. 
Atmu-Khepera, 112. 
Atoms and molecules according to the Ancient 

Egyptians, are not destroyed, 95, 96. 
Atum, 103. 
Azazel. The Angel, taught the art of the 

lapidary to mankind, 30. 



Ba or Bai, plur. Baiu, the responsible soul, 
Introd. ix., 92, 98, 114, 115, 148, 152. 

was judged in the Hall of Osiris, 119, 120. 

usually represented as a human headed 

sparrow-hawk, but sometimes as a crane 
and at others, as a lapwing, 115. 

Balance. The, 152, 153. 

Basilidian amulets, 143. 

Bibliography of the scarabaeus, Introd. xix. et 

seq. 
Birch, Dr. Samuel, on a scarab of Sebak-em-saf, 

154. 



157 



Birch, Dr. Samuel. His edition of the Book of 
the Dead, Introd. xviii. 

his writings as to the scarabaeus, Introd. 

XX. 

his "Formulas relating to the Heart," 

154- 
Birth. The second, and resurrection from the 

dead, 89, Introd. vi. et seq. 
Body. The, called Khat, 114. 
Book of the Dead, Introd. xvi. et seq, 60, 66, 75, 

76, Z6, 92. See, Dr. Samuel Birch, M. Paul 

Pierret, P. Le Renouf, M. Edouard Naville. 

shows a hidden religious metaphysic, 68. 

some chapters only inscribed on the 

winding-sheet of the mummy, 61. 

Chapters relating to the Heart, 67 and 

Appendix A. 

as to Khepra in it, 85. See, Khepra. 

Edouard Naville's translation of, 146, In- 
trod. xvii. 

P. Le Page Renouf's translation of, 145 et 

seq., Introd. xviii. 

Books. Ancient, 72. 

Boort. Use of, and diamond dust, 31, 32. 

Buprestis. The, held in estimation, 6. 



Cakes. The sacrificial, Introd. ix., 152. 

Cameo. Finest, in the world, 33, 34. 

Cancer. Scarabaeus anciently used in Egypt, 

to represent the zodiacal sign now called, 12. 
Carnelian. The XXIXb. chapter of the Book 

of the Dead, usually incised on, 151. 
Cartouch. Reason of the shape of the oval line 

around the, 14, 38, 39. 



^ 



158 



Cartouches. Royal, oval form of the, taken from 

the shape of the underside of the scarabaeus, 

14, 38, 39- 
Champions. The Divine, 149. 
Chaos, 103, 107, 108, 112, 113. 
Christ called the scarabaeus of God, 6;^. 
Christian scarabs, 6^, 64. 

ircle. The Divine, 150, 152, 153. 
Coprophagi. Family of the, 4. 
Corundum. Use of, in engraving hard stones, 31. 
Cowroids are of the Hyksos period, 25. 
Crab. Zodiacal sign of the, 12. 
Creation, 99 et seq. 
Creator and created, 95, 99 et seq. 
Cricket. The Holy, Veneration of the natives 

of Madagascar for, 13, 
Cross. Position held by of the Latin, as a 

symbol, 3, 95. 

Latin and Greek, 95. 

Crux ansata, an emblem of the Ka or vitality, 

118. 
Cylinders. Engraved, used in Egypt, 39, 40. 
■ not an evidence from their use in Egypt 

that they came from Mesopotamia. 



Dead. Book of the. See, Book of the Dead. 
Death did not according to the Ancient Egyptian, 
destroy the personality of man, 96. 

The Second, 94, 96, 120, 121, 153. 

Deities of Literature and Libraries, 70. 
Deities. The, transformed, 94. 

Deity. The Supreme, Ideas as to, in Ancient 
Egypt, Introd. xii., xiii. 

The Highest, an androgene, loi, 102. 



159 



Diodorus Siculus, 75. 

his writings cannot always be depended 

upon. Ibid. 
Division of the spiritual in man, 114 et seq. 
Double. The spiritual, called the Ka, 117. 

See, Ka. 
Drills. Use of, in ancient times, in cutting hard 

precious and other stones, 31. 



Early Assyrian sealed contracts, 130 and note. 
Eidolon, 118. See, Ka. 

Egypt. Aborigines of the land of, Our knowl- 
edge of the, Introd. vii. 

art in, six thousand years ago, 69. 

its civilization six thousand years ago, 70. 

Hebrews in, Introd. xiv. 

ideas as to the Supreme Deity in Ancient, 

Introd. xii. 

idolatry in, Introd. xii. 

six thousand years ago, had a language, 

religion and writing, 69. See, Introd. 

Egyptians. The Ancient, highly civilized, 69 
et seq. Introd. vii. 

race of the Ancient, was Caucasian, In- 
trod. vii. 

Ancient, thought as to the spiritual-world 

and its inhabitants, elevated, Introd. xii. 

signets, 15, 16, ^d> et seq. 

used symbols, having an occult meaning, 

to designate their deities, 4. 

Emanation or Creation of all things, 100 et seq. 
Emery. Use of, 31. 

Engraving of precious stones. Antiquity of the 
art of, 30 et seq., t^^. 



l6o 



Engraving. Method of engraving in ancient 
times, 31. 

on scarabs, 20, 21, 22, 48, 51, 52. 

Enamels on scarabs, 19. 

Enoch. Book of, cited, 30. 
Entomology of the scarabaeidae, 4 et seq. 
Ephod, Engraved stones in the Hebrew High 

Priest's, 37. 
Erpa. The, of the gods, 147. 
Etruscan glyptography has not a transitional 

period, 140. 
Etruscan scarabs, 134^/^^^. 

divisions of, according to subjects engraved 

thereon, 141. 

form of, 13s, 136. 

usually of a conventional form, 134, 135, 

136. 

manufacture of, 136, 137. 

material of, 135. 

■ time of manufacture and use of, 142. 

• where found, 134 et seq., 138. 

method of wearing, 139. 

worn as amulets and for ornament, 139. 

those having a white opaqueness have been 

burned, 139. 

subjects engraved on, 137, 138, 140, 141, 

Etruscans at first purchased the scarabs from 

Phoenicians, 140. 

borrowed the form of the scarab but did 

not care for the cult, 139. 

Eternal life of the soul of man, Introd, vi., vii., 
ix. , X., xi., xii., xiii. See, the Second Death. 

Eternity. Lords of, 148. 

Eternity of the soul of the good, 96. See, In- 
troduction. 



i6i 



Ethiopians. Religious feeling for the scarabaeus 

among the, 12, 13. 
Evil One, is Apap, 86. 
Evolution in the Egyptian philosophy, 99 et seq.^ 

104 et seq. 
Ezekiel's. The prophet, description of the 

working and engraving of, precious stones, 

35- 



Face. Broad, The god of the, 150. 

Felspar. The XXVIIth chapter of the Book of 
the Dead, incised on green, 151. 

Forgery of scarabs, 123 et seq. 

Future rewards or punishments to the soul, 
Introd. vi., vii., x., xi. See, Annihilation, 
Wicked, Heaven, Psychostasia, Second Death. 



Genius. The, the Ka, 118, 148, 152, 153. See, 

Ka. 
Geographers, 73. 
Ghost. See, Ka, Khu, Eidolon. 
Gnostic amulets with the scarabaeus portrayed 

on them, 143. 
God, 109, no, III, Introd. xii. et seq. 
God and His universe, 95 et seq. 
Gnostic amulets, 143. 
Good. The soul of the, is eternal, 96. 
Grammarians, 73. 

Grave. Glorification in the deep, 153. 
Great Sphinx. The, a philosophical abstraction, 

68. See, Sphinx, 
Greek authors, statements of as to Ancient 

Egyptian abstract thought, 74. 



t^ 



162 



Greek authors, cannot be depended upon. Ibid. 
Greek and other writers, who mention the sca- 

rabaeus, Introd, xviii., xix. 
Greek scarabs, 142. 
made in the Egyptian style, a manufactory 

for such was at Naukratis, 27. 
Greeks called the scarabaeus the Helio-cantharus^ 

7. 



Hard stones, Egyptian method of cutting, 32. 

See, Engraving, also Scarabs. 
Hapi, 108, 

Harmakhis-Khepra, 80, 85. See, Khepra. 
Harmakhu-Khepra-Ra-Tum, Zt^. 
Harmony and law of the universe, 79, 99, 100. 

this was called the Ma^ 81. See, Ma. 

Hathor, 102. 

Hatshepsu. Scarabs of Queen, 28. 

Signet of, 34. 

Heart. The, was called Ab, 119. See, Ab, 
also Appendix A. 

the, 66, 92. See, Appendix A. 

considered as the source of life and also 

the place of the thoughts, 145. 

■ curious representations in connection with 

the, 145- 

was symbolized by the scarab, 146. 

was symbolized by Khepra, the scarabaeus 

deity, 92. See, Khepra. 

scarabs to take the place of the, 60, 61, 

66. 

whole, meaning of this expression, 146. 

the, in the Book of the Dead, 75, 76, and 

Appendix A. 



i63 



Heaven. The Egyptian eternal heaven, 6i. 

See, Aanru and Hotep. 
Hebrew High Priest, names of precious stones 

in his Ephod, 37. 
Hebrews in Egypt must have had knowledge of, 

the Egyptian belief in the immortality of the 

soul and its future reward or punishment, 

Introd. xiv. et seq. 
Hebrew Qabbalah. See, Oabbalah. 
Helio-cantharus. Greek name for the scarabaeus, 7. 
Hephaestos (Ptah) symbolized by a scarabaeus 

and vulture, 12. 
Heretic kings. Scarabs not in use by the, 44. 
Hermes Trismegistos cited or quoted, 74, 96, 

109, no. 
Hermopolis, 150. 
Herodotus, 75. 

quoted, 97, 

Heron. The, 151, 

Herseshta. See, Teachers of Mysteries. 
Historical scarabs, 49 et seq. 

value of, to the historian, 50. 

Horapollo quoted as to the scarabaeus, 8, 9, 10, 

II, 12. 
Horapollon, 74. See, Horapollo. 
Hor-em-khu, 84, note. 
Horus, 77, 93, 94, 108, 112. 

the eye of, 84. 

Horus, Hor-em-Khu and Khepra, 80, 81. 
Hotep. A division of the Egyptian eternal 

heaven, 61. 
Hottentot. Veneration for the scarabaeus by 

the, 13. 
Hyksos. The, Introd. xiv. 
Hyksos period. Scarabs of the, 25. 



J 



164 



lamblichus, 74. 

Ideal Prototype, 16, 17. See, Prototypes. 

Idolatry in Egypt, Introd. xii. 

Individuality. The, 116. 

Immortality of the soul, 98. See the Introduc- 
tion. 

the scarabaeus the symbol of the, 13. See 

also. Scarabs, Scarabaeus. Soul, and the 
Introduction, also Appendix A. 

Incising of scarabs, 22. 

Intellectual part of man's spirit, 115, 116. See, 
Khu. 

Isis, 86, 94. 



Jesus called, the good Scarabaeus, 61. 

crucifixion of portrayed on a scarab, 64. 

Jeweled drills and saws. Use of, 31, 32. 

Joseph under the Hyksos, Introd. xiv. 

Joseph. The signet ring given by Pharaoh to, 

36 and note. 
Josephus, Introd. xiii. 
Judges, 73. 
Judgment of the soul, in the Hall of Osiris, 

effect of, 120, 121. See, Psychostasia. 



Ka. The, Introd. ix., xv., 60,82, 148, 152, 153. 

See, Appendix A, also the Double, and 

Division of the Spiritual. 
dwelt with mummy, had a semi-material 

form and substance in the shape of the dead 

one, and had power to go and return when 

it pleased, 117, 118. 



i65 



Ka. It was the Vitality or Double. Plural, Kau, 

117 et seq. 
KaandKhu, Union of the, 120, 121. See, Khu. 
Khaf-Ra, Khephren or Khefren. Scarabs of the 

period of, 24. 
Khaf-Ra. See, Khephren. 
Khaibit. The, was the Shade or Shadow of the 

dead, 116. Parallels the Tzelem of the 

Hebrew Qabbalah. 
Khat, was the Body, 114, 148. 
Khem, 77. 
Kheper means, to become, to raise up, 88, 89, 

95, 104, III, 112. 
Kheper as the emanator or creator, loi et seq., 

lo'j ef seq. 
Khepera (Khepra). lo^ ei seq. See, Khepra. 
Khephren. Statue of, in diorite, 41, 42. See, 

Khaf-Ra. 
Khepra, 99, 100, iii, 112. 
Khepra. The Scarabaeus deity, 86. 
Khepra, also called Khepera, a form of the 

maker of the Universe which had the scarab 

as an emblem, 14, 99 et seq. 

was also called, Tum-Khepra also Osiris- 

Khepra, 88. 

. was the symbol of the Heart, 92, 93. 

was the transformer, 78. 

in the Book of the Dead, 78 et seq., 85. 

• as Harmakhis, 85, ^6. 

in the bosom of the gods, 87. 

against the rebels, 88. 

as the Enlightener, 78, 79. 

is Eternity, 86. 

is the producer of the transformations, 87, 



i66 



Khepra overthrows Apap, the evil-serpent, 85, 86. 
Khepri. See, Khepra. 
Khmunu, 108. 
Khopiru, 84. 
Khu. The, 82, 98. 

the Intellectual part of man's spirit, 115, 

116. 

in case of adverse judgment on the Ba, 

the Khu fled back to its immortal source, 120. 

Khu and Ka. Union of the, 120, 121. 
Khufu. Scarabs of the period of, 24. 



Lapidary. Antiquity of the art of the, 30. 
Lapis-lazuli. The XXVIth Chapter of the Book 

of the Dead, incised on, 151. 
Lathes. Use of, 22, 32. 
Librarians. Ancient, 71. 
Libraries. Ancient, 71, 72. 
Life and death. The interchange of, 97. 
Living. The, the saved or re-born, 151 and 

note. 
Logos. The, 105 and note, 107. See, Word. 



Ma, 81, 79. See, Maat. 

Maat, The Law or Harmony of all created, 70, 

99, 100 and note. 
Makrokosm. The, 16, 17 and note. 
Manufacture of scarabaei, i^eiseq., 27. 
Manufacture. Periods of, 21 ef seq. 
Materials used in manufacture, 18, 19, 20. 
Matter is only transformed, 94. 
Mead of amaranthine flowers, 147. 
Medical papyrus, Introd. ix. , x. 



167 



Men governed by their prejudices, 3. 

Mena, Introd, vii. , 72. 

his cartouche inside of the oval form taken 

from the underside of the scarab, ^8. 

Men-kau-Ra. Inscription on the coffin of, In- 
trod. vi. 

Mer-en-ra, 83. 

Mesopotamia and its relations with Egypt, 41, 
42, 43, 44. 

Mesopotamia. Egyptian scarabs found in, 62, 

Messenger. The, of thy god, 151. 

Messenger, the same as angel, 151 note. 

Mestha, 109. 

Mesxen. The reservoir from which came the 
new souls, 99 note, 103, 104. See, Souls. 

Metaphysicians. Religious, 73. 

Metempsychosis. Mistaken ideas as to Egyp- 
tian, 97 et seq. 

Mineralogists, 73. 

Mirini I., 83, 84. 

Motion in all things, 96, 97. 

Moses. Reason why he may have omitted put- 
ting the doctrine of the future life of the soul 
in the Pentateuch, Introd. xv. et seq. 

Moses and belief in the immortality of the soul, 
Introd. xiii., et seq. 

Mysteries. The Teachers of, 72. 

Mummy called the. Husk, also the Sahu, 118, 
119. 



Names of precious stones in the Ephod of the 

Hebrew High Priest, 37. 
Naukratis. Scarabs of, 27. 



i68 



Naville. M. Edouard, edition of the Book of 

the Dead, Introd. xvii., 146. 
Nebesheh. Scarabs of, 27. 
Neb-ka. Scarabs of, 23, 46. 
Nehabkau, 153. 
Nephesh of the Hebrew Qabbalah, and the 

lower vitality of the Mummy or Sahu, 118, 

119. 
Nephthys, 86. 

Neshamah. The, of the Hebrew Qabbalah, 116. 
Nine. The divine, 83. 

Nothing destroyed, only transformed, 95, 96. 
Nous. The, of the Greeks, 116, 
Nu or, the Sky, 108. See, Nut. 
Nut, 79. 



Oldest scarabs, 46. 

Osiris, 93, 94, 106, 147, 149. 

the dead one became an Osiris, Introd. 



Pacht was the Mistress of thoughts, 70. 

Papyrus Ebers. Introd. x. , note. 

Papyrus. Medical, Introd. x. 

Pentateuch. Hebrew, no idea in it, of the im- 
mortality of the soul and its future reward 
or punishment, Introd. xiii. et seq. 

Per-em-hru. See, Book of the Dead. 

Pepi I. Scarabs of the period of, 24. 

Personality. The, 116, 117, 119, 120. 

Philo. Introd. xiii. 

Philosophers, 73. 

failure of, to understand psychological 

phenomena, 3. 



169 



Philosophy. Ancient Egyptian, 68. 

of the Ancient Egyptians not yet under- 
stood, 68. 

Philostratus quoted, 4. 
Phoenician scarabs, 128 et seq. 
Phoenicians. The, were copyists, 132. 
Phoenician manufactures of cylinders, signets, 

etc., 129 ^/ seq. 
Pierret. M. Paul, his edition of the Book of 

the Dead, Introd. xvii., xviii., 145. 
Plato, 75. 

Pliny quoted as to the scarabaeus, .7 et seq. 
Plutarch, 74, 

quoted, 7, note. 

Prayers and litanies for the dead, 121. 
Precious stones. Hard, Chapters of the Book 
of the Dead incised on, 151. 

hard, used in making scarabs, 18, 19, -^2)^ 

151- 

in the Ephod of the Hebrew High Priest, 

37- 
Primordial Man. The, 16, 17 and note. 
Prototypes. The, 103, 104. See, Mesxen, also 

Souls. 
Psyche, 114, 115. See also. Soul. 
Psychology. Ancient Egyptian, 114 et seq. 

and the Hebrew Qabbalah. Ibid. 

Psychology. Ancient Egyptian, as yet only 

partly understood, 69. 

Psychostasia. The, or weighing of the soul of 
the dead, 149, 152, 153. See, Future re- 
wards and punishments of the soul. 

Ptah, 90. 

the scarab an emblem of, he was one of 

the forms of the creative power, 12, 14. 



70 



Ptah-Sokari-Osiris, was sometimes represented 
under the form of a scarab, 15. 

Ptah-Tatunen, 94. 

Ptah-Tore, 12 note. 

Punishment in the Underworld, 87. See, Anni- 
hilation, also, Psychostasia. 

Pythagoras, 75. 



Qabbalah. The Oral Tradition or, 69. 

of the Hebrews and the psychology of the 

Ancient Egyptians, 115 et seq. 

the Rua'h of the Hebrew Qabbalah, 115. 

the Nephesh of the Hebrew Oabbalah, 

118, 119. 

the Neshamah of the Hebrew Oabbalah, 

116. 

Qebhsennuf, 109. 



Ra, 79, 83, 93, 94, 112, 151, 153. 

the scarabseus as the symbol of the creating 

power of Ra, 14, 15, 84. 

when used as part of the king's name, 23. 

Ra-Harmakhis, 81. 

Rameses H. Scarabs of the period of, 26. 
Ren, the Name or Personality, 116, 117, 119, 

120. 
Renouf. P. Le Page, his edition of the Book 

of the Dead, Introd. xviii.. Appendix A. 
Resurrection from the dead, 92, 93, 122. 

was symbolized by the scarab, Introd, v., 

vi,, vii. See, Immortality of the soul, also, 
Soul. 



171 



Resurrection of the soul, symbolized by the 
Great Sphinx, 82. See, Introduction, also, 
Sphinx. 

Regeneration and re-birth, 95. See, Introduc- 
tion. See, Soul. 

Rings. Use of, 40, 41. 

Roman scarabs, 142. 

Rua'h. The, of the Hebrew Qabbalah, 115. 



Sacrificial victims. Those examined and passed 
as right, marked with signets having on them 
the figure of the scarabaeus, 20. 

Safekh, goddess of books, 70, 71. 

Saitic period. Scarabs of the, 26. 

Sahu. The, or Mummy, 60, 118, 119. 

may refer sometimes to the living person- 
ality of the mummy, 119. 

Sardinia. Scarabs found in, 130, 131. 
Sardinian scarabs. Division according to the 
subjects, 131, 132. 

age of, 132. 

Scarab as a signet, 7. 

as an amulet, 7. 

the symbol of the Heart, 66, 67, 145. See, 

Heart. 

Chapter XXXb. of the Book of the Dead 

on a, 154. 

a beautiful Assyrian in the British Museum, 

^33- 

the synthesis of the Egyptian religion, 95. 

a symbol of the re-birth, resurrection and 

eternal life, of the soul pronounced pure, 66. 

the hieroglyph of. To become, etc., also, 

creator, 80. See, HorapoUo. 



172 



Scarab. A representation of with two heads, 
one of a ram, the other of a hawk, 89, 90. 

the oldest known, that of Neb-ka, 23, 46, 

an emblem of Ptah, 13, 14. 

Scarabaeus. Name of in different languages, 2. 

entomology of, 4, 5, 6. 

where found, 4. 

the hieroglyph of "to be," the emanating 

or creating, etc., iii, 112. See, Kheper. 

the first living creature seen coming to life, 

from the mud of the Nile, 13. 

symbolism of the, 6. 

the symbol of, creative and fertilizing 

power, 7, 8, 13. 

the symbol of re-birth, resurrection and 

immortality of the soul, 13. See, Introduc- 
tion. 

an early symbol of the idea of a future life 

of the soul, and its resurrection, and likely 
of its future reward or punishment, Introd. 
vi., vii. , xi, 

emblem of the re-birth and resurrection of 

the dead, 88. 

a symbol of the resurrection in the heavenly 

regions, 92, ()2>' 

held the position among the Ancient 

Egyptians which the Latin cross holds with 
us, 2. 

as an emblem of the creating source of 

life, portrayed on the tombs of the ancient 
Theban kings, 16. 

an amulet or talisman, 15. 

astronomical value of the, 12. 

an early symbol of the zodiacal sign now 

called Cancer, 12. 



[73 



Scarabaeus and the Heart in the Book of the 
Dead, 75 et seq. See, Appendix A, 

varieties of the, according to Pliny, 7, 8. 

meaning of according to Horapollo, 8, 9, 

10, II, 12. 

veneration of the Hottentot for, 13. 

• sacred to Amen-Ra, 13. 

winged, 59, 60. 

Bibliography as to the, Introd. xix, et seq. 

Scarabaei. Manufacture of, 18 et seq. 
Scarabaeidce. The family of, 4. 

Scarabs. Art in making, 52, 53. 

forms of usually met with, 47, 48. 

difference as to large and small, 21. 

divisions of, 48, 49. 

where and how worn by the living, 58. 

put in place of the Heart inscribed with 

chapters from the Book of the Dead, 67. 
See, Appendix A, also Heart. 

where found on mummies, 57, 58, 59, 60, 

62. 

representations of, with the head of a cow, 

ram et seq.., 59, 

set in gold, 59. 

engraving on, 48. 

symbols engraved on, 20, 21. 

age of those not engraved on the under 

or fiat part, 46, 47. 

unfashionable in the XHth Dynasty, 40. 

the oldest thus far known, 46. See, Neb-ka. 

difficult to judge of the age of, 28. See, 

Forgery. 

historical, 23 et seq., 49 et seq. 

great value of a knowledge of, to the 

historian, 29. 



174 



Scarabs. Knowledge of the age of, 29. 

re-issue of, by a later monarch, 28. 

Etruscan, \2>^ et seq. See, Etruscan. 

the material in which Etruscan, were 

made, 135, 136. 

Phoenician, 12?, et seq. 

Sardinian, 130, 131. 

forgery of, 123 et seq. 

Seals. Egyptian, some archaeologists incorrectly 
claim, that they came from Mesopotamia, 37, 
2,^ et seq. 

Sealing mentioned in the Old Testament, 35, 

Phoenician, 12^ et seq. 

Seb, 94, 147. 

Sebak-em-saf. King, copy of Chapter XXXb 
of the Book of the Dead on a scarab of, 154. 

Sechit, 147. 

Sechit-hotepit, 150, 

Selk goddess of libraries, 71. 

Sent. King, Introd. viii., ix. , x. 

Serpentine. The XXXth Chapter of the Book 
of the Dead, incised on, 151. 

Shade. The, of the dead, 116. 

Shalt an Sensen. The, 60. 

Shepherd Kings. See, Hyksos. 

Shera. Steles from the tomb of, Introd. viii. 

Shesh. Very ancient recipe of the queen Shesh 
for washing the hair, Introd. x. 

Shu, 106, 108. 

Signet. The scarab as a, 7, 15, 16. 

Signet ring. Mention of the, in the Old Testa- 
ment, 35, id. 

Signets Egyptian, sometimes squares or paral- 
lelograms, zi. 



175 



Soldiers wore the scarab to increase bravery, 
7, and note. 

Solon, 75. 

Soul. The responsible, called the Ba. See, 
Ba. 

Soul. Immortality of the, 98. See, Introduc- 
tion. 

Soul. Immortality of the, and the writings 
attributed to Moses, Introd. xiii. et seq. 

Soul of the good was eternal, 96. 

Soul of the wicked was destroyed, 96, 

Souls. The reservoir of, 99 and note. Note. 
Comp. Hermes Trismegistos. Book. The 
Virgin of the World, and Book. The Initia- 
tions or Asclepios. 

Sphinx. The Great, an abstraction, 81, ; J) 

was an image of Ra-Harmakhis, 81, ^ Si 

was Harmakhu-Khepra-Ra-Tum, 83. 

the philosophical value of the Great, 95. 

the Great, meaning of, 82, 83. 

Statues of diorite, 41, 42. 

Stele of the Great Sphinx, 83. 
Stelae. Oldest known, Introd. vii., viii. 
Strabo, 75. 

Sutu. The caverns of, 150. 
Suten-hotep-ta. The, Introd. viii., ix. 
Symbolism of the scarabaeus, according to Pliny, 
7. See, Scarabaeus and Scarabs. 



Tamar. See, Thamar. 
Ta-nen, 94, 103. 
Tanis. Scarabs of, 27. 
Tef-nut, 106. 
Teta. King, Introd. x. 



176 



Thales, 75. 

Thamar or Tamar, 36, 

Thespesion quoted, 4. 

Thoth, 70, 74, 148. See, Hermes Trismegis- 

tos. 
Thotmes III., 21, 28. 

scarabs of, found in Mesopotamia, 62. 

Chapter CLIV. of the Book of the Dead, 

on his winding-sheet, 61, 62. 

Thotmes IV., 83. 
Tmu, 150. 
Tuamautef, 109. 

content of the vase of, 61, 66. 

Tuat. The, 151. 

Tum or Atmu, 79, 93, 99, 102. See, Atmu. 
Turn not inert, 112, 113. 
Tum-Harmakhis, 113. 
Tum-Khepra, 100, iii. 
Tumu, 84 and note, 108, 
Telloh. Statues found at, 41, 42. 
Transformations. Power of the dead to make, 
87, 88, 89. 



Underworld. The, called Amenti and Amenta, 
102, 148, 152, 154, Introd. xvi. 

the Egyptian word so translated, may 

apply to a higher or opposite world to ours, 
Introd. xvi., note. 

Universe. Evolution of the, 99 ef seq., 104 ef seq.^ 
106 et seq. 

emanation of the, according to Hermes 

Trismegistos, 109, no. 

production of the, 100, loi. 



177 



Vital principle of the human being after death, 
the Ka, 117. See, Ka. 



Wicked punished, 94. See Soul, also, Future 

reward, etc. 
Wicked. The soul of the, annihilated and 

destroyed, 96. 
Women wore the scarab, 7. 
Word. The, 105 and note, 107. See, Logos. 
production or creation, by the, loi et seq. 



Zodiac. Emblem on the Hindu, resembles more 

a beetle than a crab, 12. 

of Denderah. Scarabaeus on the, 12. 

Zodiacs. The scarabaeus in some zodiacs in 

place of the crab, 12. 



^ 



